A Happy Christmas Ending
by Mariann's
Summary: Slash SBRL first time fic AU It all really started on Halloween 1981 Two Marauders silently pine for each other, but not much longer completed
1. The Blow and the Fallout

**Part 1 - The Blow and the Fallout**

It was the last week in October. The weather had been stormy, cold and grey, with lots of rain and a strong wind, that blew the leaves from the trees with a vengeance. A young man pulled up the collar of his Muggle coat up to his ears and his scarf up to cover his mouth. He had his hands firmly in his pockets and walked against the wind and the rain to cross the park that was a convenient shortcut to reach his home a bit quicker.

The young man had slightly shaggy light brown hair and unusual eyes. Normally they were a lighter shade of brown, but when there was candlelight they shone in a warm amber colour. His face was an even oval, with a nicely shaped nose and high cheekbones. He had a nicely curved mouth and soft lips, which he worried, while he walked. A quick look at his watch made him speed up. It was late and he was expected to be at home by now. His roommate was already suspicious of his long hours of 'work'.

When he finally reached his destination the door to the flat seemed to burst open all by itself and Remus Lupin was greeted by a Sirius Black who looked furious about his delay.

"Where have you been?" he shouted.

"I'm sorry, Sirius, we ran late…"

"Who is 'we' this time, Remus?" Sirius wanted to know.

Remus sighed, pulled off his coat and his scarf, hung everything on the coat rack and cast a quick drying charm on the rather wet clothes. He hardly dared to look at Sirius.

"My team at work, Sirius," he said calmly.

Remus needed every last bit of his usual calmness to stay friendly. He couldn't tell Sirius where he had been and with whom.

"Well then… I just waited for you to come home, because I need to go out now, Remus. It'll probably be late…" Sirius said.

Remus just stared after his friend, who quickly got dressed into his leather coat and grabbed his helmet, dragon-hide gloves and the keys to his motorbike.

"Ride carefully, Sirius!" he whispered at the retreating back.

Remus closed the door and sighed again. He didn't even ask where Sirius vanished to, it would either be James and Lily's house or wherever he turned to these days. Remus really wasn't so sure about his friend anymore. They had hardly talked lately, and when they had talked they hadn't said much of anything at all. Remus went to the kitchen, tapped the kettle with his wand and made fresh tea, which he kept warm by his side and sat down in the living room to spend the rest of the evening reading.

But he couldn't concentrate on his book. His thoughts followed Sirius, the man he secretly loved. Remus had known for a long time, that his love interest wouldn't be a woman and he had fallen for his best friend a few years ago already. When Sirius had asked him to move in with him after school he had quite gladly accepted. He knew that once he left Hogwarts he would be in need of someone close, as he would have difficulties to find a job. There was no way he would be accepted at the Ministry, regardless of his near perfect NEWTS marks. It would be hard to find anything in the regular wizarding economy either, because it wouldn't take employers long before they found out about his condition. After more than a year of trying Remus had given up and found work in the Muggle world. He worked at a switchboard of a large department store, with very irregular hours, where he could swap shifts and have free days when the moon was full. It didn't even pay so badly and Remus was quite content, even though he had to spend much time in the Muggle world with a pretty boring job.

Sirius had found a job at the Ministry. He had just finished his legal apprenticeship in the Department of Law Enforcement and was now a junior lawyer working for Bartemius Crouch. It was quite a brilliant start of a career.

Remus saw the image of Sirius in his mind's eye. Dashingly handsome with his shoulder length black hair, steely grey eyes, considerably warmed because they laughed most of the time, his broad shoulders and well shaped long legs. Remus was still amazed that Sirius had chosen this branch of the Ministry, but he had to admit that Sirius was working quite hard to learn the tools and tricks of the trade. Sirius had never been a beacon of correctness at school, but Remus knew that he possessed a keen sense of justice. Sirius absolutely despised injustice in any form. He was constantly on the barricades when someone mistreated Remus. He was quite an able defender in court by now and Remus expected him to go on in this line of work, becoming a lawyer with a firm of his own once he was trained up.

* * *

Sirius had stormed out of the house, but as soon as he was on his bike and in the air he cooled off a bit, even though it was mostly because of the cold weather. He drove straight to Godric's Hollow, a tiny hamlet in Wales, where Lily and James had bought a cottage two months before. They had just finished moving in and were warding it off. Less than a month ago Dumbledore had informed them about a prophecy, which had been given to the old professor something over a year ago. Dumbledore believed in it and took it for real. Sirius wasn't quite sure what to think of it. James regarded him like a brother and the two never kept any secrets from each other, so he had told Sirius the full text of the prophecy.

James had also taken steps to have everything in order for his family should he fall victim to an attack. And he had good reason to do so, as Lily had just had another baby, only a year after Harry was born. Sirius thought fondly of the two little ones, Harry, the lively boy of fifteen months and his tiny sister Hannah, just ten weeks old now. James and Lily had made a testament, declaring Sirius to be the guardian of both of his children, choosing Remus, Hannah's godfather as the second guardian.

But they felt that regular wards, even the ones Remus had set up, would not be enough for their protection. Lily and Professor Flitwick had found an old charm, which they were going to use now. In the last meeting of the Order of the Phoenix they had discussed it. The Fidelius Charm would be perfect for them, Remus had beamed when he heard what they would do. The charm asked for a Secret Keeper, a person who would guard the knowledge of the Potters' whereabouts once the charm was cast. Sirius was chosen and even though Dumbledore himself had offered to be the Secret Keeper James would not have anyone else but Sirius. Sirius was ready to die to keep his friends and chosen family safe.

And now Sirius was on the way to see his friends to tell them that he had second thoughts. He reached Godric's Hollow just after seven, it was already totally dark and the weather had become even worse. Sirius spelled his bike impervious to the rain and left it in the short drive in front of the cottage. He knocked on the door and James opened to let him in.

"Hi Sirius. I was beginning to get worried…"

"Remus only got home ten minutes ago. He's running later every day…"

"Well, it's shortly before Halloween, they must have more calls where he works…"

"Yeah, I know."

Once they sat Sirius was delighted to find out that Harry was still up, even though the little one was quite tired. But he wasn't too tired to say hello and goodnight to his beloved 'Pafoo'. Sirius played with the toddler for a few minutes, then he gave him a hearty kiss on the cheeks and passed him to James, who took the little one to bed. Lily was still busy with Hannah, who she nursed. Sirius had a few minutes to settle down before James and Lily returned from their children's rooms to join him.

"Did you have dinner, Siri?" Lily asked.

"I've had a quick something, yes, thanks, Lily."

"Okay. So what's so important, Sirius?" James asked.

Sirius took a deep breath.

"I suspect it's Remus…"

"Why do you think so?" James asked, baffled.

"Well, the spy can't be either of you, since you're the targets. I know it's not me and we will probably agree that dear Peter really can't be the one, because he's really not much of a wizard, let's face it. Voldemort has more than enough idiots around already, I really can't imagine that he'd engage another one if he can have a powerful wizard like Remus. And I've heard he's been going for the werewolves lately."

"Where have you heard that?" Lily asked.

"I've talked to the Prewett brothers. Fabian told me. He's had it from the Werewolf Registry, where they're really worried. And then they've discussed new legislatures in the DMLE to make it even harder for them. I told those idiots that this would be the very thing that would drive every last one of them right into Voldemort's arms. I don't think it's going to go through this time, Dumbledore has been after them to leave their fingers from it, too. I don't think Remus does it out of his free will, I can't imagine he'd do that, James!"

"Well, that doesn't change anything about our plans, now does it?"

"No, but it disqualifies me from being your Secret Keeper, James! Remus knows about it, we have to switch!"

"Who should substitute then?" Lily asked in a tight voice.

"I think, Peter would be the best choice…" Sirius suggested, "He's kept out of everything so far, I mean, he's really been just there, nothing else…"

While James was ready to consider this choice, Lily protested:

"As much as I like Peter, I'm really not sure I want to entrust him with our lives, Sirius!"

"No one will know about the switch. We won't even tell Dumbledore about it. Everyone will think it's me and the Death Eaters will certainly come after me, and no one will think of Peter. I don't think anyone would expect you to do this…" Sirius insisted.

"You know, he has a point there, Lily," James said.

"Yes, he does."

They discussed it for an hour before Lily was convinced that it was a good idea. But then James finally got up and went to the fireplace to call Peter over. They asked their friend and Peter accepted after a bit of coaxing. Sirius hugged both of his friends tightly, because he expected not to see them for a very long time. He then left the house and Lily cast the charm with Peter Pettigrew as their Secret Keeper.

* * *

Sirius returned home and found Remus still in the living room, his book open on his lap, his head tilted on top of the back of the sofa, asleep. Sirius looked at his friend and felt tears welling up. He had never been able to tell his friend how much he loved him. He loved him far beyond the affection for a friend, Sirius had loved him ever since he had found out about the werewolf. He had always known he loved Remus, but only about a year ago had he started to feel a different quality in his love. He felt it in his groin as well as in his heart. The revelation had been a shock for a moment and it had taken him about half a year to even accept it. Sirius had never thought about relationships much, he mostly enjoyed his friends and wasn't exactly looking for lovers. Being one of the best looking boys at Hogwarts had not led to him accepting the adoration of the female population of the school. On the contrary, it had made him very uncomfortable at most times. Now he understood the reasons for these feelings and after half a year of self-doubt and analysing he had come to terms with the fact that he was gay.

He had no idea how Remus felt. His werewolf friend had never looked after girls, but he had never looked after boys either. Sirius suspected that his friend didn't allow himself to think of love because he feared rejection as soon as people would find out about his affliction.

Sirius took off his outer clothes and hung them on the coat rack. Then he went to the living room, plucked the book from Remus' lap and laid it on the coffee table. He lifted Remus up very carefully and carried him to his bedroom. He laid him down gently and pulled the blankets over him. Then he left the room and closed the door.

* * *

Every day during the following week Sirius went to check on Peter. Wormtail always greeted him quite cheerfully and confirmed that everything at Godric's Hollow was okay, that he went to see them every other day. On Halloween evening Remus was out again working late until midnight. At eleven Sirius fire-called Peter as usual and didn't get a reply. Peter had told Sirius he'd be in that evening. Sirius was getting worried, so he got dressed and left to check on his friend in person. He found Peter's small apartment completely in order, but also completely empty. Now Sirius was really worried. There was no sign of a fight or even a struggle. He wondered if Death Eaters had somehow learned about Peter being the Potters' Secret Keeper. Sirius jumped back on his bike and all but flew over to Godric's Hollow, worried not only for James and his family, but also for Peter.

He could see the explosion from far away. It blew a part of the roof away, a green light shone out of a hole in the wall on the first floor, where Harry's nursery was. Sirius came too late!

He landed, jumped off his bike and dropped it almost carelessly on the ground, then he ran inside the house. In the lounge he found James' dead body. Sirius dropped down next to his friend, completely speechless. With a sob Sirius returned to where James lay and crouched down next to his friend again.

"James! Come on, James, wake up! James! James! Come on, Prongs, you can't do this to me, wake up, for Merlin's sake!"

All of a sudden he heard a slight swishing sound and looked up, just seeing the tail of a rat vanishing out of the corridor to the open door. Sirius understood in this moment who the traitor among them was. He was back up on his feet in a second and pulled his wand to stun the rat, but he was too late, once he got out of the lounge the rat was gone.

Sirius broke down again, sobbing. James was still almost warm, he couldn't be dead! Then Sirius looked up, worried sick about the rest of his family. He became aware of Harry screaming at the top of his lungs. He had never heard the baby scream that way, Sirius all but ran up the stairs to the nursery, wand still in hand. On the way he checked little Hannah's crib. The baby was asleep. To make sure Sirius checked that she was breathing and had a pulse. She was completely unharmed. Sirius sighed, relieved that at least the little one was still alive, too. He knew that Lily always set up a one-way silencing charm, so that the baby wasn't disturbed by noise from the others in the house. Then he moved to Harry's room. And found Lily. She was dead. She still had her wand in her hand, and a furious look was frozen on her face. Harry was in the cot, still screaming, but Sirius wasn't astonished as he saw a small wound on the little boy's forehead. It still bled. Sirius pulled his wand and quickly healed the cut, but he couldn't seem to get it to heal without leaving a scar. He lifted Harry from his cot and held him tightly, soothing him, kissed his cheeks and looked around.

Slowly Sirius got enough breath to assess the situation. He had not seen a Dark Mark above the house. What could have kept Voldemort from setting it up after he'd killed. He'd seen the explosion, which must have come from the Avada Kedavra curse cast in Harry's room. Harry's nursery had a huge hole in the wall where the window had been, just above Harry's cot. There was a considerable amount of rubble from the ceiling in the room, but most of it had been blown right out. Then Sirius looked around the room. As an investigator he had learned to look around for traces at a crime site. He had only just lifted up Harry, because the baby needed to be comforted. All of a sudden Sirius saw a pile of black robes. His eyes widened as he recognised them to be Voldemort's.

"Voldemort?" he wondered aloud. "His clothes all in a pile? So he didn't leave this place?"

He looked at Harry. What had happened here? He hadn't seen Voldemort here, only knew that he must have been around. His train of thought was interrupted when he heard heavy steps coming up the stairs. He looked out to see Hagrid squeezing himself through the hall.

"Hagrid?"

"Sirius! Wha' are ye doin' 'ere, lad?" Hagrid asked.

"I went to check on Peter and when I didn't find him, I came here, because I was so worried. But I was too late, Hagrid! Help me to take the children to our flat, they're orphans now…"

"I'm told to take anyone still alive to Dumbledore, Sirius! I can't leave them to you…"

"You have to. I'm their legal guardian now. I'll speak to Dumbledore myself."

"No, I can't, I 'ave to take 'em there meself, Sirius!"

"And I won't let you, Hagrid. Harry is completely beside himself, I'm his godfather, I'll take care of him and Hannah… help me taking them to my place. We can contact Albus from there, okay?"

"I'll stay there until you contact 'im though, Sirius! I'm not goin' agains' 'is wishes!"

"That's okay, I don't want you to, but I'm not going to let these children out of my eyes. Something has happened here, don't touch anything, I'll have to cast a couple of Muggle-repelling charms, because we need to really find out what went on here before they're allowed to swarm this place! When I approached the house I saw the explosion that did this to the wall…"

Sirius nodded to the gaping hole in the wall where the wind and rain got in.

"Okay, I'll hold 'arry, you pick some stuff together to take along, okay?"

"Here, let me dry the blanket…"

Sirius dried the blanket and wrapped Harry into it, then he let Hagrid hold the baby. And then he packed up Harry's dresser and toys and even the cot, made everything small and put it into a bag.

"I'll fetch Hannah now…"

Sirius went to the other nursery, packed up Hannah's things just like Harry's and carefully placed the baby into the sling Lily always used.

"I'm sorry to wake you, little one, but you need to come to your godfather Moony and my place tonight…" Sirius whispered.

He returned to Hagrid and the two left the house. Sirius quickly cast the minimum amount of Muggle-repelling charms.

"There's my bike, it's big enough for both of us, Hagrid. It'll take us there within a few minutes…"

"Okay."

Only a quarter of an hour later they arrived at Sirius' flat. It was two o'clock now and they found a very worried, but very awake and frazzled Remus who gaped at them when they turned up with the two children and a huge bag full of the babies' things.

"Sirius! Hagrid! What happened? I thought, James and Lily were covered with the Fidelius, how could you get to the children?"

"Remus, help us to quickly set up the children in their room, then we'll have to contact Albus and we'll tell him and you everything!"

"Okay…"

Half an hour later Harry and Hannah were asleep again. All three men looked down on the children and Remus tip-toed over to Hannah to kiss the little one on the forehead. Then he set up the one-way silencing charm Lily had always used and followed Hagrid and Sirius down to the living room.

"Now, Sirius, you've been their Secret Keeper, tell me what happened!" Remus said.

"No, Remus, I wasn't. We switched. Peter was their Secret Keeper…" Sirius said tiredly.

Both, Hagrid and Remus stared at him. It wasn't like Sirius to shift off his responsibility, so they insisted:

"Sirius, but what happened then?"

"Let's get Dumbledore here, then I don't need to tell it twice…" Sirius replied with a sigh.

"I'll go get 'im, Sirius. You're stayin' 'ere?"

"There are two little children sleeping upstairs, Hagrid, what do you think? That I would pull them out of their sleep for a second time in one night?" Sirius asked back angrily.

"Don't get shirty with Hagrid, Sirius. I'll make sure he stays here, Hagrid, go on, get Albus…"

It didn't take Albus long to get to them. He came to the flat with Minerva McGonagall and Hagrid, and he looked very, very angry.

"Explain yourself, Sirius," he said curtly.

"Before you get all over me and put me down, listen to my story, please, Albus!" Sirius said and offered them all seats.

Remus brought tea and once they had settled down Sirius started to tell them about the switch.

"I know you don't believe me, but it's true and I'm ready to take Veritaserum to repeat my statement."

"So let's get over the event one more time. You saw an explosion with a lot of green light when you approached the house, is that right, Sirius?" Albus asked.

"Yes."

"And there was a hole in the wall just over Harry's cot?"

"Over and behind. What's amazing is that the cot was completely okay. In fact I've taken it along so Harry can sleep in his familiar bed. Whatever he's been cursed with blew the wall right out of the house."

"I suppose that no one apart from us knows what happened there yet, so I'd like to go there with some Ministry people to have everything investigated. Is there something else you need to tell me, Sirius?"

"Yes. Two things. The most amazing one is that there was no Dark Mark in the sky above the house. It seems like Voldemort was there, but hasn't left the place. And the other… you know where Harry's room is, if you step into the room you'll find a pile of robes and clothes right next to the door on the right side. They're Voldemort's, I'm dead sure. Harry was still in his cot when I took him on my arms. He was screaming louder than I ever heard him scream before and you know he isn't actually a cry baby. But if Voldemort is gone it's still strange, because there was no wand on the floor. I haven't touched the pile though, it could be underneath. I didn't want to touch anything but Harry and his things. And I've seen Peter leave the house when I checked on James."

"And you couldn't catch him?" Dumbledore asked, baffled.

Sirius shook his head.

"Unfortunately not. He was too quick. There is something else I will need to tell you, Albus, but that can wait until after you've seen the house, it will only be important to catch Peter… and you'll understand why I couldn't get him."

"I will be back then. Now we have to discuss what is to happen with the children…"

"They're staying with us, Albus. James and Lily have it in their will that I'm their legal guardian," Sirius said firmly.

"Sirius, they need to be completely safe. Voldemort is still after them," Dumbledore said.

"And where would they be more safe than with us? If they weren't safe with their parents they won't be safe anywhere, Albus, we can only do our best," Sirius insisted.

"We will discuss this further when I'm back from Godric's Hollow. Minerva, may I ask you to stay here until I return?" Albus asked.

"Yes, of course, Albus."

"Good. I shall see you later."

Sirius was livid. He knew that Dumbledore didn't have any legal right to claim Harry and Hannah, so he stayed as calm as he could, but the stress of everything that had happened and the guilt at not having done the right thing to protect his best friends and the realisation of James and Lily's death started to set in and he broke down. Remus, who sat next to him on the couch, pulled him into his arms and they cried together for their best friends. Minerva blinked away the tears and remembered something practical:

"Lily nursed Hannah, didn't she?"

Remus nodded.

"Well, we need to get bottles and baby food then, to make her formula! She'll certainly be hungry soon."

Remus blanched. He swallowed and looked at Sirius.

"Sirius, can you hold on for a while? I'll go to the night apothecary to get what we need for the baby."

Sirius looked at Remus and nodded.

"I can. Be back soon, Moony!"

"I will…"

Remus got dressed warmly and went out. When he returned less than an hour later he found Sirius still on the sofa, with Minerva next to him, holding him. Sirius was asleep.

"He's only just fallen asleep now, Remus," Minerva whispered.

"I'll take him up to his bed then…" Remus replied and put his stuff down.

He levitated Sirius up and into his bedroom. Once he had covered his friend he came back down to the living room where Minerva looked at the baby food.

"We'd better prepare some, so it will be ready when she wakes up…" she suggested.

Together they managed to prepare the baby food. They cooled the bottles they had filled and left them in the kitchen. No ten minutes later they were woken by little Hannah who was hungry and cried for food. Remus ran up and picked his godchild out of her crib.

"There, there, my sweet one, food is ready, it's waiting for you already, love…" he said soothingly.

Luckily Harry had not woken up. Remus checked on him quickly and carried Hannah down the stairs to the living room. Minerva turned up with the bottle from the kitchen.

"Now then. Have you ever done this?" she asked Remus.

He nodded.

"With Harry when Lily stopped nursing him… you can give me the bottle. Might as well start to get used to it…"

Remus sat down, the baby firmly on his arm and offered her the bottle. But that wasn't what she was used to get, so it took quite a while before Remus had her convinced that this was all he could offer her. Finally she did suckle a bit and after a while she at least had enough to still her hunger. Remus put the bottle down and lifted the baby up to burp her. He was just finished changing her nappy when Dumbledore returned. Minerva let the old professor into the house.

Remus still had the baby on his arm. One glance at Dumbledore told him that the headmaster was very worried.

"Remus, I believe, I have reconstructed what must have happened in the nursery. – Where's Sirius?"

"Asleep. He broke down and cried. I had to go and get baby-food for Hannah, when I came back he was asleep. I took him up to his bed."

"I'll go and wake him up…" Minerva offered.

"Yes, please, Minerva, do so. He needs to hear this."

Sirius turned up with Minerva a few minutes later, wiping sleep and dried tears from his eyes. He sat down. Dumbledore conjured up fresh tea and told them of his findings:

"I found everything exactly as Sirius described. The pile of clothes lay next to the door, there was no wand. If what Sirius says is true and Peter was the traitor, then he might be the one carrying Voldemort's wand now. I expect it will not be too difficult to get hold of him, he is not the most talented of wizards…"

"I'm afraid that on the contrary it will be very hard to find him, Albus. Because Peter has a talent you know nothing about. He is an Animagus and his form is a common garden rat…" Sirius said straight out.

McGonagall jumped straight from her seat.

"What? Impossible! You know how he always had the greatest of problems in Transfigurations!" she cried.

"But he's still an Animagus. Ask Remus, he will confirm it…" Sirius said.

"Is that true, Remus?" Albus asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is…" Remus confirmed.

"But… how? And… when? You're not telling me that he did this all by himself, Sirius!" Minerva spluttered, very much out of her character.

At any other time Sirius would have grinned. To witness his very sovereign Transfigurations teacher in such a frazzled state would have been a treat had the situation not been so grave.

"Peter was an Animagus, but he wasn't the only one. I'm sorry, Remus, I know we promised to keep this among us, but I suppose it's time to own up. When we learned about Remus' werewolf we decided we wanted to do something to help him. Now we knew that there was no cure for his lycanthropy, but we were convinced there would have to be something that would at least make it possible to make his transformations easier for him. And after many nightly library raids we finally found out in several sources that werewolves rarely harm other animals and that animals couldn't be cursed. So from then on we looked for a way to become animals. That was when you brought your Animagus lecture in third year. Of course that was our solution, so more nightly library raids helped us to find out how to go about it. We managed our initial transformations around Christmas of our fifth year."

Dumbledore and McGonagall both stared at the young man and listened with interest as Sirius told them how they went about their task and how they managed their initial transformation in their fifth year.

"What's your form then, Sirius?" Albus asked.

Instead of a reply Sirius simply transformed into Padfoot. When he came back, Minerva said:

"That explains your ridiculous nickname…"

"I'm hurt, Minerva, he's got that nickname from me!" Remus said with a smile.

"What was James?"

"A stag. That's why we called him Prongs," Sirius said and his eyes filled with tears again.

Not only his. Dumbledore sighed. He returned to his findings:

"Now then. We found Voldemort's wand missing. It's a very peculiar one, yew, thirteen inches and with a phoenix feather. I know that, because it was a feather from Fawkes. When Fawkes gave a feather for Ollivanders to use I asked him to tell me once the wand he made from it would be sold. I then checked on Lily. He's killed her with Avada Kedavra. She must have put up quite a fight, from the way she looked. She might have sacrificed herself, because taken from the prophecy Voldemort couldn't have been interested in her. Lily and Hannah weren't really in danger, but Harry was his main target. I'm afraid that he has now marked the boy as his equal, Sirius, which is why Harry is still in a terrible danger. He needs to be safe where his mother's blood dwells and as there is only one surviving relative I will have to place him in his aunt's family."

"You are not going to split the siblings and I will not give my consent to that, Dumbledore. You have no idea how Lily's sister is. She resents everything that has to do with Lily and us. She will completely neglect Harry at best, but I suspect that she will hurt him instead if you put him into her hands. She has forbidden Lily to even get near her and her husband and especially her son who's six weeks older than Harry. There is no way in hell I will allow for this. Rather I go somewhere abroad with Remus and the children to keep them safe than that! It would be cruel!" Sirius stormed.

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Sirius there, Albus. I've met Petunia and Vernon Dursley, and all I can say is that they are probably the worst kind of Muggles you can meet. And I really don't have any problems with Muggles otherwise as you know very well. I fear, if you hand Harry over to those two they might as well help Voldemort in his task of killing Harry," Remus confirmed.

"But Harry needs to be safe! If that prophecy is true, and I now believe that more than ever, then we will have to face Voldemort again one day and then we will need Harry."

"Just so you understand that well, Albus: Harry is a living, breathing being with a soul and a heart and we will not tolerate you to regard and treat him as a weapon to get rid of Voldemort one day. For the moment he seems to be gone anyway!" Sirius said.

"Voldemort may be gone, but there are still all the Death Eaters around, Sirius, and who do you think they will be after as soon as it gets known that Voldemort has been vanquished by a baby of fifteen months?" Dumbledore insisted.

"Harry. But by the time they will know that he will already be nicely covered with the Fidelius charm with you as his Secret Keeper," Sirius shot back.

Dumbledore was rarely caught unawares but he found himself caught unawares now. He shot Sirius a look and the look he got back from Sirius clearly told him that he had found his match in his former student. Dumbledore knew in this moment that Sirius wasn't only a very talented and powerful young wizard, but that he would be a formidable adversary if he ever turned to the other side.

"And where will you live? This is a fine flat, but it's definitely too small for a family of four," Dumbledore said.

"Take your pick. I have inherited three houses from my uncle Alphard. Three, Albus, and all three are suitable. Personally I'd prefer the one in Cornwall, because it was uncle Alphard's favourite and the one he lived in most of his life. It's more than big enough with six bedrooms. We could still fix it up a bit, but it's inhabitable. Remus and I have spent some time there last summer."

Dumbledore considered this. Remus spoke up.

"I think, that is a very good idea, Albus. The secret you will keep is that Harry is with Sirius, Hannah and I, this way he will be covered wherever he goes with one of us. I would think that in a few years the charm will not be needed anymore and can be lifted anyway. I'm sure, Professor Flitwick would perform the charm for us, or yourself…" he suggested.

"That is actually a very good idea. You can still tell a chosen few about them, Albus. You might want to cover Hannah, too, because people could guess where Harry is when they see his sister," Minerva threw in.

Dumbledore sighed. He knew that he had no legal right to claim Harry and he had just learned that Sirius would fight like a lion to protect the child. He had not doubted the affection Sirius held for his godson, he was just afraid to lose the boy. If Dumbledore was quite honest with himself he had let himself be driven by his fear to lose the key person to vanquish Voldemort for good whenever that would be.

While he scratched his chin through his beard and contemplated, Sirius and Remus looked at each other. Remus was already thinking of quitting his job to take over the role as the children's surrogate mother and was putting together a mental list of everything they would need to do at the house to make it ready for the new family.

"Well, I can see that you will not give in to my preferred security measures, so we will have to do with your suggestion. It would probably have worked well if you hadn't put your trust in the wrong friend. But the investigation is not yet over, Sirius and we will have to ask you to testify under Veritaserum still. Be prepared to turn up before the Wizengamot soon."

"Anytime, Albus. I can come there with you right now. Apart from putting my trust in the wrong friend, as you say, I have done nothing wrong and as mad as I am right now at Wormtail, I will be there to help catch him but otherwise I won't touch him at all. I can't bring James and Lily back to life, but I know my responsibility towards their children and I'm ready to take it," Sirius said firmly.

Remus looked at him with adoration in his eyes. He loved Sirius when he was so determined and sincere. He still held Hannah on his arm, but the baby had fallen asleep a while ago. He just kept her there, because he didn't want to miss a second of this argument. As long as she was sleeping it was fine with him.

"I still think that Harry would be best off if he could grow up far away from the wizarding world. He'll be dragged through the media for weeks and months to come, Sirius, and then everyone will know him. He'll be famous for something he won't even remember. He'll be harassed all over the place from people who he doesn't know. There will be more than enough attention for him to put ideas into his head…"

"Albus, you do know the location of this house in Cornwall, don't you?"

"Not precisely, no… I've never visited Alphard there, only in his London house."

"Which he left to Andromeda. Well, it's on Gargle, one of the Scilly Isles, and not one that is otherwise inhabited or even seen and known to the Muggles. In other words we'll be completely outside of the Muggle and the wizarding world. As are most of the Black estates this whole island and the house are unplottable. It is still Floo connected, but we can restrict that if you wish. If you ask me it provides you with the best possible hiding place for Harry," Sirius explained in a very haughty tone.

"I suggest we can go there and see it today. Then I'll decide."

* * *

There was much to do. Remus and Sirius didn't even unpack the children's luggage beyond nappies for them and a change of clothes. They packed what they wanted to take along from their own things. Remus wrote his mental list of things to buy down and went on a shopping trip as soon as the shops opened. When he returned Sirius and Albus were already waiting for him in front of the fireplace. Minerva seemed to have returned to Hogwarts. Sirius put Harry on Remus' arm and said:

"I'll go ahead. The house is named Gargle Hall. That's also the Floo name."

With that he vanished with Hannah and Albus waited for Remus to follow with Harry, then he followed himself. He came out of an ornate big fireplace in a large open living room. The room was south faced and already filled to the brim with light from a window to the east. Albus looked around. As far as England went this was quite a lovely place. Even now at the beginning of November it was fairly warm and the sun shone quite brilliantly. A house-elf had turned up the moment Sirius had come in and he introduced the little creature to Dumbledore.

"Albus, this is Kisty, she used to be my uncle's house-elf here on the island. She still keeps the house in order. Kisty, your days of boredom are over, because Remus and I will move in here permanently with Harry and Hannah Potter."

"Master is going to live here? Oh, I is so happy, because I is having something to look after again!"

"That's good, Kisty, we'll fix the house up a bit, give the rooms a new lick of paint and so on, but we'll do that one by one, taking our time. I'm sorry to barge in so suddenly."

"It doesn't matter, master Sirius, you is very welcome and Kisty will go and make lunch for you right now…"

"Just give it about half an hour's time, Kisty, we have a look around before we eat, okay?"

"Okay."

Sirius picked up the large bag containing Harry's and Hannah's things and said:

"Well, let me show you the house then, Albus. This here is the front living room and dining room right over there."

They walked over to the dining room, which was separated from the living room by a glass wall with a wide glass door in a wooden frame painted in white, that swung to both sides. Turning around the corner there was a big kitchen. When they left the kitchen they found themselves in a corridor. Sirius pointed the rooms out:

"There behind the kitchen is Kisty's room. On the other side is the downstairs cloakroom with a small bathroom. Between them the main door. Then there's a study, quite nicely sized and next to the study is a small library. Then follows the small living room, faces to the west with the view of the Atlantic. We are just southwest of St. Agnes, the southernmost of the inhabited Scilly Islands. You can catch a glimpse of St. Agnes when you look out the kitchen and dining room windows. Let's go upstairs."

They climbed up the staircase and reached a spacious landing on the first floor.

"There are five bedrooms and three bathrooms on this floor. They're all nicely sized. Uncle Alphard's bedroom was this one here. My room was over there…"

Sirius pointed out two of the rooms facing south. Alphard's bedroom was clearly the master bedroom, as it was the largest of the five rooms. It had it's own bathroom. The room went through almost to the back of the house on the eastern side, where another smaller bedroom lay. Across the hall were three more bedrooms and two bathrooms.

"We'll give this one here to Hannah and the next one to Harry, Sirius, okay?" Remus suggested and pointed at the southernmost and adjoining rooms.

"Yes, unless you'd like to have the first one, then we'll give the next two to the children…" Sirius suggested.

He felt that Remus should have one of the nicest rooms in the house. The southern room on this side of the house was also a bit larger than the remaining two rooms and would suit an adult better than a small child, he thought. And then said so.

"Okay. We can still give it to her when she's growing up…" Remus gave in.

They deposited the children's bags in their new rooms. Then Sirius pointed up the smaller staircase to the uppermost floor.

"Up there is the attic, one large room, but there's nothing in it. It can be completely closed off, so if need be, Remus can use this one for his transformations. I'm otherwise thinking of just letting him outside, running always does him best and he doesn't quite injure himself like he does when he's locked up…" he explained to Albus, "We can then lock ourselves safely inside during the full moon nights."

Dumbledore looked impressed enough. They returned to the living room, where Sirius conjured a thick blanket for the baby and Remus finally let Harry down. Harry was looking for his toys, but didn't find anything, so he started to wail.

"Sorry, Harry, your toys are still all packed upstairs. I'll get some of them for you, okay?" Remus said and left to pick up some things for Harry. When he returned he placed Harry's favourite stuffed animal into his hands. Harry grabbed it and beamed at Moony.

"Ta, Harry!" he said.

"Moo'ey…" Harry said.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Mum?" Harry asked.

"Sorry, love, but your mum isn't here right now," Remus said sadly.

Harry seemed to accept that. Remus thought bitterly that it had been good that he and Sirius sometimes took Harry for the night in the last three months, to get him used to being away from his parents and to give them ample opportunity to get used to the new baby.

"Good. The house is perfectly fine and should do well. I will cast the charm. I have to agree, that the secret should be that Harry and Hannah are with you two, not that they are in this house. But I still want you to stay here for as much time as you can spend here. I would suggest that you keep your job, Sirius, you can floo there. You can both officially move here and let everyone know that you have taken residence in the house you inherited from your uncle, Sirius. Since the children are covered with you two they should be safe this way. Officially we will have them placed with a family in Canada. I know of the perfect people who will stand in as their new foster parents if asked. That will keep sensation hungry wizards and witches from going there all too often, as we will not advertise the location. This solution allows the two of you the most possible personal freedom. When the worst is over we'll announce that the two children have returned to your care. In the meantime we might consider a few children from other Order members as playmates for Harry and Hannah. There are several choices, I'm thinking of little Neville Longbottom and Susan Bones for example. Philip McKinnon is a year older than Harry, he'd do very well, too."

"Then cast the charm, Albus. We're ready to stay here. We'll only have to pick up a few things from the flat, then we can settle in here. I have to report to work later on, and take off a few days. And we'll have to prepare for the funeral…"

"If you would like to leave that part to me, you would be most welcome, Sirius. There is going to be a big media circus, which has to be expected and the two of you will probably be right in the middle of the interest. We have yet to inform the Ministry and give the statements. The children were our first worry and now that we have settled that we can turn to the other important matters."

Remus' and Sirius' eyes filled with tears again. Both felt that they were running on adrenalin only. And they both realised that they would have to gather all their strength for the children and their daily lives and still find moments of quiet to be able to mourn. They looked at each other.

"Yes, Albus, I suppose that would be best. With the little ones we won't be able to take care of everything…"

"That's alright, Sirius, I see it that way, too. One last question before I cast the charm: who knows about this house?"

"James and Lily knew about it. I don't think any of my surviving family members apart from Andromeda and Ted know about it, as Alphard had bought it a while after his fall-out with the clan. He spent quite a lot of time here, but once they've disowned him they didn't exactly check on where and how he was. So there aren't very many people who would be able to find it. Peter doesn't know about it. He only knows we were on a vacation here on the Scilly Islands."

"Well, we'll have to do some tests about the reliability of the Fidelius charm. I cast it now. Then I will send some of my friends here to see how the two of you are doing, Poppy Pomfrey will be one and Filius Flitwick will be the other. I'll question them to find out what they've seen in here when they come back. Since they won't know about the children being here before they return their information will surely tell me how well Harry and Hannah are disguised. Now we need your house-elf, I will afterwards have to tell her where Harry and Hannah are."

"And test her first, Albus," Sirius suggested.

"Certainly. Are you ready?"

"Yes, go ahead."

Dumbledore pulled his wand and cast the charm.

"Fidelio Harry et Hannah Potter apud Sirius Black et Remus Lupin, accognoscerum Albus Dumbledore," he chanted and performed a series of wand movements while speaking the incantation.

A bulb of light came out of Dumbledore's wand and first covered the children and then Remus and Sirius and finally all four of them. Dumbledore watched as the bulb seemed to vanish inside the group of people he had just covered with the charm. He closed his eyes and dropped his wand.

"That's it?" asked Sirius.

"That's it," Dumbledore confirmed.

"Well, I'm calling Kisty then. – Kisty! Could you come to the living room, please?" Sirius called.

A second later the little house-elf joined them, looked around and asked, astonished:

"Where is the children? I is not seeing them around here anymore, but I is sure I is having them heard just a moment ago?"

Dumbledore smiled. He turned to Kisty and said:

"Kisty, these two children are in danger, that's why we have covered them under a charm. No one who does not get the information directly from me can see them. So I'm telling you now. Harry and Hannah Potter are with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. – Can you see them now?"

Kisty turned to her master again and now she could see the two little ones again. She looked most relieved.

"Oh yes, I is seeing them again. Will sir have to tell Kisty again later, so she will see them?"

"No, Kisty, you will now see them always."

"And no one can harm them, even though I is seeing them?"

"No. You can actually tell anyone you like, they will still not see the children, because they don't have their knowledge from me."

"Oh, it is good then. Would sirs now like to come to the dining room and eat? I is preparing the lunch."

"Thank you, Kisty, we'd love to. This young lady here is hungry again and Harry will also like to have something in his belly," Sirius replied.

Sirius took Harry, Remus bent down to pick Hannah from the blanket. He went after Sirius and Dumbledore, looking longingly at Sirius' backside. With a little sigh he went to warm up the next bottle for little Hannah.

After lunch Dumbledore left. While Harry was napping Sirius went to report back to work and apologise for not showing up in the morning. He returned before any reporter was able to catch him and replaced Remus, who had to report to his job for another late shift. Remus wrote down his notice and handed it in as soon as he got a moment free.

"We're sorry to see you go, Mr. Lupin. You are doing very good work," his supervisor said.

"I'm sorry to leave, but I'm moving to the Scilly Isles in the next days. I'd be glad if I could actually leave as quickly as possible. I know it's sudden, but I have to go. A cousin of mine has died and she's leaving two very small children behind, the younger only ten weeks old. I'm the chosen guardian for them. We're provided for, but the children really need me now," Remus explained.

He didn't even blush as he lied.

"Oh, I see. Yes, such small children do need someone there. If you could maybe still do today's shift we would be very glad, then you are off for two days anyway and from then on you would have early shifts, so you won't be missed too badly."

"Thank you," Remus said.

He worked through his last shift, but his thoughts were far away on a sunny island in a friendly house with two tiny children and one very handsome Animagus.

Who was more than happy when Remus returned. Harry was now quite cranky, because he missed his mum and dad. They had immediately known that this moment would come and were somehow glad that it was now. Sirius carried Harry around.

"Hannah is already sleeping nicely. I've set up their rooms and started to transfigure the furniture more baby-looking."

"Oh, good. Shall I release you and take over Harry?"

"Yes, please – at least for a while. I'm out of breath!" Sirius moaned.

"Pass the little one over…"

Harry changed arms and didn't protest. Remus carried him around and when he felt Harry becoming heavier he looked down and saw that the boy was finally asleep. Sirius watched him and smiled.

"You always get them to sleep, Moony," he whispered.

Remus smiled back. The other three Marauders and Lily had often wondered about his 'secret' with which he got the children to sleep. Whenever they had trouble to get Harry to sleep James and Lily would call Remus over. So James suspected a secret method and tried to get it out of Remus, but Remus just kept smiling. He carried Harry up and put him into his cot. He covered the little boy and quietly left the room, which Sirius had decorated just like his old room had been. There was light blue wall paper with clouds and little Snitches. The furniture was all light blue as well. On the floor was a darker blue carpet.

Remus joined Sirius again. He sat down next to Padfoot and soon felt his friend leaning closer. 'If only he did that because he loves me,' Remus thought. He wondered if he would ever pluck up enough courage to actually tell Sirius that he loved him. Remus leaned his head against Sirius'. Both of them just sat there in silence, which was neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, they were just simply out of words.

"We should go to sleep, Sirius," Remus finally said.

"M-hm…" Sirius replied sleepily.

They did finally get up and walked up the stairs. On the landing Remus asked:

"You check on Harry, I check on Hannah tonight?"

"Yup. Fine with me. I leave my door open. You're off the next two days, aren't you?"

"I've quit…"

"Wow. You won't mind that I'm the provider then?"

"Nope."

Sirius smiled. He turned to Remus, embraced him and whispered:

"I love providing for you – and the children. We'll be a family now, Remus."

"M-hm. Thank you, Sirius. I knew I could count on you."

"I'm glad you do, Remus. Your task will be the tougher one than mine… you'll take care of those two little ones."

"How long did you take off?"

"They allowed me a full month. I will use some of the time to help looking for the rat, Remus."

"Good. – Goodnight, Padfoot."

"Goodnight, Moony."

They separated and went to their respective bedrooms. Sirius had taken over Alphard's room and changed it to his taste. He had also prepared Remus' room on the other side and furnished it to what he knew Remus would like.

Remus entered it and had to smile. The furniture was dark wood, but all the fabrics in the room were of a warm burnt orange and the wall was a soft eggshell. There was a four poster like at Hogwarts, a wardrobe and a dresser, a comfortable armchair and a small round table next to it sat at one of the windows and there was a large arrangement of bookcases and a writing desk. Remus still had to place his books in the bookcases and to put his clothes into the wardrobe and the dresser, but the book he had been reading was already on his bedside table.

"Oh Siri," Remus sighed.

It was with these things that Sirius showed Remus how much he liked his friend. And it was then when Remus loved him most. Remus prepared for bed and crept between the sheets which Kisty had kindly pre-heated so they were nice and toasty warm, just like Remus loved it. Another thing Sirius must have told the house-elf to do, because he knew about it.

'I really need to talk to Siri one of these days,' Remus thought.

Then he fell asleep. His night was interrupted by Hannah twice, when she needed food. She was still only ten weeks old, but she would suffer a lot less from the loss of her parents, since she was so small. While Remus held the bottle for her morning feeding, which Hannah now accepted more easily, he thought that Harry would probably still ask for his mum and dad for a while and that there would be questions from him sooner rather than later. They would have to be answered right away. And that would not be easy. Remus sighed again. He wondered how he and Sirius would be able to mourn for their friends in the midst of all of this.

And then Kisty brought him the morning's Daily Prophet. The front page was covered in the headline and nothing else:

"**YOU-KNOW-WHO IS GONE!"**

Remus was almost glad that he couldn't open the newspaper at this moment. The screaming headline lay in front of him for the time Hannah needed to suckle her fill from the bottle. Remus had a hard time looking at the baby and smiling at her while the paper lay there, calling for him to pick it up.

"It's so hard to think that you are now my daughter, Hannah. But I love you as one, little one. And I'll always love you and look after you as long as you need me to," he whispered.

Upstairs he heard Harry call for his dad. Not a minute later he heard Padfoot running over to Harry's room and taking him out of his cot. Remus smiled again. Padfoot would do the same for the children as he himself intended to do – replace their parents as well as he possibly could. Hannah finished her meal when Sirius came down the stairs with Harry on his arms. Harry still cried, but he started to slightly hiccup and the cries died down with Sirius' cooing.

"Good morning, Padfoot and Harry," Remus said quietly.

"Morning Moony, hey, Hannah-baby!" Sirius said in return.

"Think, Kisty could make breakfast?"

Remus had barely spoken the words when Kisty came in and told them that breakfast was ready in the dining room. Both men smiled widely. Sirius said:

"Thank you, Kisty! Let's go over then. While you were out yesterday I've told Kisty about all of your habits, likes and dislikes, Remus, she'll know you pretty well by now."

Remus threw Sirius an adoring look. And noticed to his surprise that there was an equal look in Sirius' eyes. He was startled. Why hadn't he ever seen this before? He'd seen Sirius look at him that way hundreds of times, especially in the past two years, but he had never noticed the quality in those glances. Why could he see it now? Could it be because he himself had resolved to tell Sirius? Remus shook the thought off for a moment and took Hannah on his arm. He picked up the Daily Prophet with his free hand. They would have to face the news now.

The table was set with beautiful china and a whole array of good breakfast food. Remus looked outside. It was still dark. He could just hear the sound of the ocean lapping on the shores of the little island. Today he was going to explore it with the children, he decided. Harry needed to go out in the fresh air even more than Hannah did.

Sirius put Harry into a high chair, which he had transfigured the night before. Then he started to feed the little one. Remus had it a bit easier. He could lay Hannah down on the baby blanket, which he placed in front of the fireplace. There was a nice fire going in there and the baby was kept nice and warm. Every other minute Remus looked up from the newspaper to check that the baby was still okay.

"So – what do they say?"

Remus read the article that went with the headline aloud: "Last night there was a miracle happening in Godric's Hollow. This little Welsh hamlet was the last residence of well known Auror James Potter, his wife Lily, and their children Harry, fifteen months and Hannah, still an infant of only two months. According to information given by Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, who was one of the most trusted friends of the Potter family, the following has taken place: "A week ago the Potter family has been placed under the Fidelius Charm (see special comment in box below) with their best friend, Sirius Black as their Secret Keeper. James told me he relied on his friend to 'die for him and his family if need be'. Sirius didn't die, but James and Lily were killed by Avada Kedavra last night at their home in Godric's Hollow. I was informed of the fact almost immediately, because I have set up wards there to send alarm to my office at Hogwarts, should anyone breach the other wards on the house illegally. I sent out Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts Keeper of the Keys and Grounds, to check on them and take anyone still alive to Hogwarts immediately. He came back alone, telling me what he had found there. In the lounge was the body of James Potter. Up the stairs in the nursery of little Harry he found Lily Potter's body and Sirius Black, who held his godson Harry. In the wall behind Harry's cot he saw a big gaping hole, that had been caused by the blow of a curse. Hagrid didn't know that Sirius Black was the Potters' Secret Keeper or he might have killed him on the spot! Instead Sirius talked him into helping him to take the two children to his own home. Hagrid then called me to the scene.

"I got there and the first thing they told me was that Sirius Black had not been the Potters' Secret Keeper after all. He, James and Lily had decided at the last moment to switch and make Peter Pettigrew their Secret Keeper. Sirius thought he was too obvious a choice and that no one would think Peter would stand in for something like that. Everyone who knew their group of friends also knew that Peter was the weakest of them magically. They decided not to tell anyone who the Secret Keeper was. Now we know that Peter Pettigrew was a Death Eater who used his position in the closest circle of friends to spy on them and inform Lord Voldemort about each and every one of their moves. I placed the children under the care of a family I know very well in Canada to ensure their safety from Lord Voldemort's followers who are still out there."

It is hard to believe that this young and so talented couple is gone! They are supposedly the last victims of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Of course there's still the question about how You-Know-Who found his end. Dumbledore explained it:

"We are not precisely sure yet, but what we do know is that after Lord Voldemort killed Lily Potter he turned to Harry and cast Avada Kedavra on the boy. There must have been a massive blow, which was witnessed by Sirius Black, when he approached the building at the same time. He told us that he had seen a massive green blow, which is why we know that the Dark Lord had used the Killing Curse on the baby, but for some so far still unknown reason the curse must have bounced back from Harry and hit Voldemort himself instead! The fallout from it caused the wall and the window to be blown right out of the house."

This reporter asked Dumbledore how Harry was now, since he had stipulated that the child was still alive. "Oh, he is quite fine, except for a small scar on his forehead, which has the form of a lightning bolt. Sirius was able to heal the little wound without any problems, but he couldn't get the scar to vanish."

"So where are the children now?"

"In a foster family. To ensure their safety neither the name of their foster parents nor their location will be made public. But I assure you they are both in perfect health and when their time comes, they will return to us and come to Hogwarts."

We will have to live with that information and most probably not much more will come to light about the children during the trial that will be held in front of the full Wizengamot in two weeks. Aurors are now quite busy rounding up the remaining Death Eaters and one of them in particular, Peter Pettigrew, the traitorous friend of James and Lily Potter. Their funeral will be held in a private ceremony at the Hogsmeade cemetery in four days. Albus Dumbledore has announced that only a limited amount of people will be able to attend the funeral directly."

Remus dropped the newspaper on the table.

"Could have come out worse…" Sirius mumbled.

"Could have been a lot worse. You seem to come out clean right away," Remus agreed.

"There's still the trial. How will I prove that I wasn't their Secret Keeper? Their murder will be on my soul forever, Remus!"

"I wouldn't worry about that too much, Siri. We will have to testify of course, and we'll be in the public eye for a while. But it will blow over eventually."

"I certainly hope so, Remus."

Meanwhile Harry babbled happily through his repertoire of about eight words. Remus grinned when he heard "mum, da, Moo'ey, Pafoo, Amma" again and again. Harry called his sister Amma, as he couldn't yet say the 'N' properly. He seemed to be quite content with a warm breakfast in his belly.

* * *

Sirius and Remus made themselves familiar with their island and with their new children. Poppy and Filius had come by as promised by Dumbledore and had not seen anything apart from two young men living in a large house on a very lovely island. Then they returned to Hogwarts and were back an hour later with the knowledge of where they would find Harry and Hannah and beamed as they noticed that they hadn't noticed the children at all.

"Wonderful. This charm really is the charm. Your secret will be very safe with Albus Dumbledore, children," Filius said.

"Yes, we thought so, when Kisty couldn't see the children anymore after Albus had cast the charm. She almost panicked, the poor dear," Remus explained.

"There is a lot of power in this charm. Let's just hope the worst blows over soon, so you will be able to become their new parents more openly. It must be hard to live such a double life…"

"Well, I don't think it will be too hard. I have decided to take over the children, so Sirius will continue working and for the outside world we only moved away from London to mourn our friends in quiet here on the island," Remus said.

"That's very good. And you will remember to fire-call me if you need me after one of Remus' transformations, Sirius, will you?"

"Absolutely, Poppy. Though by now I can mostly heal the smaller scratches and wounds myself. But I will certainly call you if he needs more medical care."

"I'm sure you will, Sirius, you really care for him," the matron said and patted Sirius' cheek.

Remus grinned. Sirius poked his tongue out at him. Remus grinned even more.

They received a few more visitors in the course of the next week. Albus had informed a few Order members who were, of course, sworn to secrecy, but he felt that at least some of Sirius' and Remus' friends should know and become the closer contacts Harry and Hannah would need while growing up.

* * *

The four days up to the funeral went by in a blur for both, Remus and Sirius, who were spun into the cocoon of their house and their new family. Every night they went through everything once again. They would be asked to give an eulogy for their friends and talked about what they would say about them. The frequent visits of their friends from the Order helped them through the days. Perry Prewett, Gideon Prewett's widow, came in and promised to come and help during full moons, so that Sirius, whose Animagus form was now known to a small circle of people, could be with Remus through his transformations.

The day of the funeral arrived. Since Sirius and Remus didn't want to leave Kisty alone with the two children, they decided to put the Fidelius to the ultimate test and take the two children along. Remus disillusioned the sling, in which he carried Hannah. Sirius did the same with the stroller, which Perry had brought in for Harry. They flooed to Perry's place, since she lived closest to the cemetery at Hogsmeade. Together they walked the short distance. Sirius was already used to the climate change, but Remus froze quickly after having spent a good week on the almost sub-tropical island.

"Only now I notice just how nice and warm Gargle Island is, Sirius," he remarked and shivered.

Sirius immediately cast a warming charm over him. Remus thanked him with a smile. Sirius thought he would have done anything to get another of those smiles Remus seemed to have only for him. For the children, too, lately, but mostly for himself. He smiled back.

Around the cemetery there were crowds of people who wanted to watch the service from the outside. Aurors had to help the invited guests to the chapel. The gates were closed tightly and anyone who wanted inside was closely checked. Perry, Sirius and Remus squeezed through the crowds and reached the gates.

"Identification?" one of the Aurors asked.

"You know me, Warner," said Sirius coldly.

"I was asked to ask ANYone for identification, sir!" the guard said sourly.

"Not those two, Warner, Dumbledore would hack off your head for that," another guard, Cornelius Fudge, said.

Sirius threw a quick glance at the portly man who stood guard. He wasn't an Auror, he was the junior Minister for the Department of Magical Catastrophes. He didn't ask why the Ministry would dispatch people from this department when there were so many Aurors around. Fudge seemed to guess his question though and answered it:

"Dumbledore and Minister Bagnold decided that every Auror who was closer to James Potter would be allowed to go to the funeral…"

"Ah, I see. Thank you, Cornelius. Will you let us inside?"

"Please proceed."

The gate was opened a small bit and Sirius was able to squeeze the stroller through the gap, then Remus and Perry followed. They entered the chapel, which was a lot larger on the inside than could be seen on the outside. Dumbledore welcomed them in the entrance area and said quietly:

"You're the only remaining 'family', would you please take the front pew?"

"Yes, Albus, thank you. No one has noticed the little ones. Not even heard them, Harry has been babbling all the time."

"Very good, that means the charm really does what it's supposed to do."

Remus and Sirius sat down. They were glad for the quiet inside of the chapel. On their way to their pew they had been quietly greeted by dozens of Order members and Aurors and their families. The chapel was already quite packed and they were glad that seats had been reserved for them. Dumbledore joined them there when all the guests had arrived.

While he waited for the service to begin, Remus had eons of time to look around. He was familiar enough with the chapel, but today it was decorated for the funeral of his two best friends and no amount of flowers could bring him out of his funk. His two closest friends besides Sirius and Peter, the people he considered his extended and chosen family, they had been loved by everyone who knew them. Remus remembered how pleased his parents had been when they had learned about him having friends at school. And how delighted they were when they learned to know Remus' friends and, later on, Lily. The Lupin home had been a home for all of them, just like the Potter home. If the Marauders could choose they would definitely never go to Sirius' place, or even to Peter's. Peter's parents were only different from the Blacks in as much as they didn't state their opinions quite as loudly as the Blacks did. But Peter had grown up in a household of pure-blooded wizards just like Sirius. His parents agreed with a lot of what the Death Eaters believed in. When Peter, coming from a long line of Hufflepuffs, had been sorted into Gryffindor the other Marauders had been sure he'd be able to withstand this attitude, but in the end it turned out he couldn't.

Right in front of Remus were the two coffins. As it was tradition in the wizarding world there would be a service during which they were letting them go over to the other world through a ritual burning. Their urns would then be buried outside in their graves. The ritual was regarded as an important rite of letting loved ones pass on and helping those left behind to say goodbye.

The wizard vicar soon started the service by floating candles to everyone in the chapel. The candles were lit once the people held them in their hands. He held a short, but very touching memorial sermon. Then it was the turn of Dumbledore, who talked quietly about the two people he had held dear and had accompanied for a good part of their short lives. Since neither Lily nor James had any blood relatives left to attend the funeral it was next up to their friends to speak up. Sirius stood up first and went to stand next to James' coffin. His voice was broken and he had a hard time holding up when he brought up the importance of what the friendship with James had meant to him. The devastation he felt when he found his corpse. The loss he felt with his closest brother gone.

After Sirius Lily's best friend spoke up. She talked about the delight that Lily had felt when she came to Hogwarts. How her strict fairness and her talent, her power were remarkable. Sirius and Remus listened and didn't stop the tears from running down their faces. Both were highly aware that this was one of the moments when they could unabashedly cry and let their sadness out. When no one expected them to be strong and hold up. Remus shifted a sleeping Hannah in the sling as he got up to give his short speech. He focused on both of them, as his friends, as a couple, as his fellow prefect in Lily's case, as the couple of head boy and head girl in his last year of school. He talked about them as young parents, how much they had loved Harry and Hannah, and that they had planned to have a whole nest full of children. That James had dreamed about his 'own private Quidditch team'. That brought forth a few giggles and laughs. Remus smiled through his tears as he returned to his seat. He caressed the little one in the sling. She still slept peacefully.

Finally the vicar tapped the first coffin with his wand and set it on fire. There was a flash of fire that ate the coffin and the corpse inside in a matter of seconds. The remains were immediately placed in a Lily shaped urn, which was closed right away. Then the vicar moved on to James' coffin and treated it the same way. Sirius' tears started to flow again. He watched through a haze of tears how the vicar placed the remains in a stag-shaped urn. He was sure that many people would wonder about this form. Both urns were levitated and the vicar carried them slowly through the gap between the pews. From the first pew, which held Sirius, Remus, the children, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Flitwick the people in the chapel got up and joined the line of mourners who followed the vicar outside to the churchyard. He marched on, taking the urns to their final destination. The two graves were set up right by the wall of the cemetery. Outside was an old beech tree, many of its branches hanging over the wall and covering the spot where James and Lily would now find their final rest. Remus smiled through his tears as he noticed the tree.

"Look, Sirius, they will be back under a beech tree! How fitting!"

"Yes, remember how much time they spent under that beech at Hogwarts?" Sirius confirmed.

"I asked for this place, Sirius. I thought it would make them – and you two – happy," Dumbledore said quietly from behind.

"That's wonderful, Albus, thank you," Remus said.

The remainder of the ceremony was not too long. The two urns were let down in their respective grave. All the mourners came by and dropped their still burning candles into one or the other of the graves and then the graves were filled magically. The mason had already delivered the stone, just one for the both of them, upon which they had an inscription, that Sirius and Remus had chosen: In loving memory of the bravest mother and father, from their son Harry and daughter Hannah.

Other than that only the names and birth and death dates were inscribed on the headstone. But there was a branch with two pigeons set up on top of it, cast in bronze.

Sirius and Remus stood there for a long while. There was to be a wake held at the Three Broomsticks, but they excused themselves and left the cemetery almost immediately with a Portkey back to their home. The children had already been through enough on this day, they didn't need the loud meeting at the Three Broomsticks on top of everything.

But even with the children there it was very depressing at home. The loss of their friends was still raw, still such a shock. It drove Sirius and Remus together, they needed to feel each other to remind them of their reality, that they were still there. But both were still convinced that the other only saw them as a close friend, which led to more tension than ever between them.

"What's wrong with us, Remus? Haven't we been to too damn many funerals these past two years? We've seen that bloody chapel so often lately it should have become almost normal, for crying out loud," Sirius said, frustrated.

"I don't know, Sirius. It always hit home, but never as close as now. It's still very painful to think of my parents' deaths, but this – it's as if someone would have cut a limb from me it hurts so much," Remus whispered.

"Yeah, suppose you're right. It's just the two of us now, Moony. We'll have to keep remembering them, for Harry and Hannah. And for our own good."

"We'll see this through, Padfoot. The children will be okay…"


	2. Happy Christmas at last!

**Part 2 - Happy Christmas at Last!**

Their emotions were still in turmoil by the time they had to testify in court. Dumbledore visited them two days ahead of it and suggested:

"I've brought a Pensieve. I know of a spell that would extract Harry's memory of the event – if Peter has been there he would be seen by everyone – and thus recognised as a Death Eater. Millicent Bagnold believes my statement that you had not been their Secret Keeper, but many out there will have to be convinced still, Sirius. This is a hearing to summarise our investigation, you are not under charge, Sirius, be assured of that. Harry's memory, your testimony under Veritaserum and the Potters' will should be more than enough to clear you from possible blame."

"They didn't put down their choice of Secret Keeper in their wills as far as I know…" Sirius remarked.

"No, but they deposited a letter with their lawyer, in which they stated that they switched from you to Peter. James sent it after he went under the charm. You will be asked about the custody of Harry and Hannah. Since the will contains the explicit wish for the children to go to you it will be up to you to tell the court of the Canadian arrangement between you and the new foster family until the whole thing has settled down."

"Okay. What should I say?"

"That I have placed the children with a family that has yours and my trust. That their location and their names were kept secret out of respect for the children's privacy and safety. I'll see to it that these questions will only be asked after the questioning under Veritaserum is already concluded. You will receive the antidote immediately after the questioning regarding your position as Secret Keeper. They won't doubt any of your statements after that, I'm convinced."

"Good. I don't think I'd be capable of lying under the truth serum."

"You're not supposed to be. If the children are thought to be abroad they should be safe from being hunted down by the media."

"Yes, I would agree with that."

When the time came Sirius was quite calm. Knowing that he was not accused of anything gave him the strength to answer to all the questions he was presented with. He was called up and was immediately put under the Veritaserum. He was asked about the last week before the deaths of his friends and testified that he had been meant to be their Secret Keeper, but that he and his friends had decided to switch to Peter Pettigrew. He told them everything he saw and knew exactly as he had done in the days before the hearing, when he had been questioned repeatedly. But when Remus looked up to the Wizengamot, he thought that there were still many doubtful faces.

After receiving the antidote of the Veritaserum Sirius was really asked about Harry and Hannah.

"The will clearly states you will be the Potter children's guardian. Where are the children now?" the judge, Bartemius Crouch, asked.

"I have decided to give temporary custody to some family in Canada until the children are a bit older, when they will be coming back to me. I've done this in accordance with Albus Dumbledore's advice. To answer your next question: no, I will not say who their new foster family is, nor will I tell you about their current location. But I can assure you that they are both in excellent health and as well as they can be after having lost their parents. I feel it is necessary to keep Harry safely out of all the media craze that seems to have started up already. He has a right to grow up undisturbed and without being corrupted before he even understands what he has accomplished. It is also my wish that he learns about all of these things as he grows up, but he's to be told with care. Therefore there will be no press contact whatsoever until he is at least fifteen or sixteen, unless it is in my company and the questions have been passed by me before any interview. Any trespassing of those rules will be prosecuted from my part."

Everyone in the room knew that Sirius was a lawyer and that he would follow suit on his threats.

Remus' testimony was much less complicated. He was asked how he had spent the two days around Halloween and could tell them nothing much until the moment when Hagrid and Sirius had come into their flat with the children.

"Is it true that you and Mr. Black have moved location?" Crouch asked.

"Yes. Our new address is on one of the Scilly Islands. To be precise on Gargle Island, which is unplottable and was left to Sirius Black by his late great-uncle Alphard whose main residence it had been outside of London. We decided to make use of this place to get a bit of privacy after the recent events."

Finally Dumbledore stepped up and said:

"Just after placing the children in their new foster family's home I have been able to extract Harry's memory of the event. I have placed it into this Pensieve and would like to ask permission to show it to the court. I would also like to point out that apart from myself no one has seen this memory yet."

"Permission granted," said Crouch.

Dumbledore put the Pensieve on a small table which he conjured, then he tapped his wand to it and the memory of the events from Harry's point of view started to come up. Remus and Sirius stared at it. There was the familiar nursery. Harry sat in his cot, crying, Lily came in and lifted him up to sooth him.

"Sssshhh, little one, it's okay, mummy's here now. No reason to cry, my love…"

Then she halted and listened up. She heard James cry: "Lily, it's him! Take Harry and Hannah and go! Quick! I'll try to hold him up!"

But before Lily could really react Voldemort was already upon her. Right behind him was Peter, who had not even put up his mask. He smirked at Lily. Her eyes widened in shock, but then she placed Harry back in the cot, pulled her wand and said coldly:

"You'll have to kill me first if you want to get to Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl, I don't care if you live or die!" Voldemort screeched.

"No! Not Harry! Take my life instead of his! Not Harry!" Lily screamed.

"Stop fidgeting and stand aside already!" Voldemort hissed and cast a quick Cruciatus curse.

Lily screamed more, but didn't budge away. Voldemort, impatient, cast Avada Kedavra on her. She broke down on the floor and Voldemort immediately pointed his wand at Harry's head and cast Avada Kedavra again.

The audience in the courtroom screamed as the curse hit Harry and bounced off him right back to Voldemort. There was a terrible scream from him and then he just seemed to fall together until finally a spirit crept out of the pile of robes on the ground. At the same time the fallout of the blow sent the wall behind Harry's cot flying right out of the house. With another scream Voldemort shot out of the hole in the wall in a green bulb of light and was gone.

Behind him, Peter had watched the event unfold in front of his eyes. Shock and terror was visible in his face, but then he heard the door open downstairs and Sirius' wails when he noticed James' body on the floor. Peter didn't hesitate, he picked up Voldemort's wand, threw one more horrified glance at Harry and transformed into the rat. He scurried out of the room.

The memory was over. The whole courtroom was still under shock of what they had witnessed. Dumbledore, who had seen it before, closed his eyes for a moment. Utter silence replaced the uproar from before. Not even Remus and Sirius had seen this before, Dumbledore did not let them look into the Pensieve.

"I have one final piece of evidence to show to the court. May I please call Mr. Ingram to the stand?" he said tiredly.

The judge approved and within a moment Mr. Ingram sat down in front of Dumbledore.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Ingram, thank you for coming to this hearing. I have here a letter, written by James Potter on the 25th October of this year and signed by himself and his wife. Do you recognise this letter, Mr. Ingram?"

"Yes, it was sent to me on the same date you just mentioned, Professor Dumbledore."

"Very well. Did you open it?"

"No, there was an instruction on the envelope that it should only be opened by you in the case of the death of both of the Potters. After I've heard of their deaths I took out their will and this letter and you opened it in my presence in your function of the executor of the Potters' will."

"Do you recognise the script as Mr. James Potter's writing?"

"Yes."

"I shall read it aloud to the court now. The letter says: "Dear Professor Dumbledore. If you are reading this letter then it means that both or all four of us are dead. We would like to help the investigation by giving you the information about our Secret Keeper. Right before we performed the charm Sirius convinced us that he was a bad choice and that we should switch to Peter Pettigrew instead. After a fairly long discussion we agreed to do this and called Peter in. Sirius left us after saying goodbye and Lily performed the charm right afterwards, using Peter Pettigrew as our Secret Keeper. We have decided not to inform anyone about the switch, but Lily and I have realised what this will mean in the case of a failure of the charm. Therefore, to protect our friend Sirius Black, we have decided to write this letter and send it to Mr. Ingram for safe keeping. Signed James and Lily Potter. Dated 25th October 1981."

After that the last doubting expression vanished from the faces of the Wizengamot members. Unanimously they voted to free Sirius from all blame and ordered the Aurors to do their utmost to capture Peter Pettigrew.

* * *

It was now two weeks before Christmas. Sirius and Remus had finally settled down a bit. Sirius was still busy at the Ministry. He was now pushed into the role of a lawyer for the prosecution, and it was for a good part thanks to him and Amelia Bones that all procedures were kept up, because Barty Crouch kept pestering them for a quicker preparation for all those trials that were now set up for all the Death Eaters that were caught. Some of them came by themselves, claiming that they had been under the Imperius curse. Sirius did everything, that he and Amelia Bones were on the panel to try Lucius Malfoy, when he came in. He was one of those people who spoke up and claimed to be under Imperius, a fact that made Sirius laugh straight out. Amelia had insisted to take over the judging, so the trial would be fair. She knew that Crouch was inclined to believe Malfoy. And she knew that Malfoy carried a mark on his arm that he didn't get because he had been forced to. She was going to appeal for the use of Veritaserum and that would tell the Wizengamot just how innocent Lucius Malfoy was.

All this kept Sirius very occupied. But he had time enough to arrange for Remus to get free access to his accounts for everything Remus needed for the family, himself or Sirius. And every evening when he came home he found something new to delight him about the house, the surrounding or the children. His first move was usually to the play area that had been set up for Harry in the living room. It was right by the big window and door to the terrace. During the day, when the sun shone, the play area could be extended to the outside, which Harry adored.

Sirius loved the children. Remus was sure that Lily and James would be happy to see that Sirius turned out to be a much more responsible father than he had been a godfather. As Harry's godfather Sirius had always claimed that he was allowed to simply spoil the baby and leave all the disciplinary things to his parents. Now he had to learn that he needed to watch out for Harry and Hannah. And that he would be one of the guys who had to say 'no' at times.

And above all the action at home and at the Ministry there was still the love he felt for Remus which he could not voice.

The last full moon of the year fell on the 19th December. Sirius took the next day off at work. He knew that Remus would need him as usual and there were the children. Perry came in the late afternoon to take over the little ones. Sirius and Remus sat on the terrace. They had warded the house off, so that Moony would not try to get in when he smelt the humans inside there. Padfoot nudged him away from the house as soon as the transformation was complete and they ran along the shore of the island, played in the small bit of forest they had on the northern end, just a copse of trees really, but it was enough for them to play hide and seek.

And in the early morning Moony dropped down, finally exhausted from his runs around the island. Gargle Island was just above two miles long and less than that wide. Moony ran around the island at least twenty to thirty times as he loped easily. He didn't tire fast either. Padfoot watched him for about half the time, sitting out the odd lap around the island. The trees were on a small hill, from where he could see practically the whole island and could watch Moony. Moony had recognised the island as his new territory. Woe to anyone who would try to set foot on this island when the wolf was out. They would have been shred to little pieces and eaten straight away.

But when Moony finally came to rest next to the huge black dog, he nestled close to the shaggy fur. He would lay his snout on Padfoot's front paws, which were stretched out in front of the dog. He'd lay nose to nose with the dog until he felt the moon set on the horizon. They could watch the moon when it was clear. And on this cool December night it was crystal clear. Moony lifted his nose and sniffed Padfoot. Then he licked Padfoot's snout tenderly. Padfoot reciprocated with eager licks of Moony's ears and face. Then he nudged Remus up and motioned to the house. They ran back to the terrace and Sirius pushed Remus onto the nest of blankets he had set up in front of the door. It had worked wonderfully on the November moon and Sirius intended to keep up the method until Moony knew the procedure and returned to the place by himself. Remus transformed and was out shortly after that. Sirius opened the door and levitated Remus, covered with a blanket, inside and up the stairs to his bathroom. The bathroom had been redecorated in the meantime and shone with a white enamelled tub, loo and sinks, white cupboards and dressers and brass handles and faucets. The magic mirror had a brass frame. The whole room was now tiled all over in pure white tiles. Sirius had ordered Kisty to let in a bath so it was ready for Remus. The house-elf had complied perfectly and Remus woke up when Sirius gently washed him clean, washed his hair and lifted him out of the water.

Remus could only smile and whisper a "Thanks, Paddy," before he was asleep again. Sirius put him to bed and covered him up. He pulled the curtains on the windows closed and left the ones on the bed open. Then he bent down and kissed Remus on the forehead.

"Rest well, love," he whispered.

Then he left the room to see that everything in the house was okay.

When Remus woke up a few hours later he had a faint memory of the kiss. He closed his eyes and wondered if that had been reality or if it had been a pleasant dream. He got up and dressed, then he turned up in the living room, where he found Perry still around.

"Hi Perry. Where's Sirius?"

"He went out. Told me he'd be back by lunch time."

"Oh – good."

* * *

Sirius had just helped Perry with the children at breakfast, then he left and went to Hogwarts. He didn't go to see the headmaster though, he went to see Poppy. When he came into the hospital wing and found her in her office, she jumped up.

"Sirius! Is something wrong with Remus? Does he need me?" she asked anxiously.

"No, he's fine, Poppy. I need you though, just for advice. Are you very busy right now?"

"No, it's quiet. Just one Ravenclaw boy with a flu. What can I do for you?"

"I know that you are not prejudiced against homosexuals, so I thought you might be the best to ask for advice…"

"Come, sit down here and tell me. Are you gay, Sirius?"

"I think so… I'm in love with a man anyway."

Poppy started to smile. She meant to know the direction this conversation would be taking. She thought back for a moment and remembered that she had hardly ever seen Sirius paying mind to the gaggle of girls that used to gather around him, trying to catch his eye. His grey eyes had usually only followed his friends and more so a particular friend. 'I should have known,' she thought.

"That alone doesn't make you gay, just in love, Sirius. And that's a wonderful thing."

"I suppose it is. But how do I tell him? I don't know if he swings this way…"

"Is it Remus, dear?" Poppy asked softly.

Sirius nodded.

"Did you ever see him with a girl that was more than just a friend?" she asked on.

Sirius shook his head.

"You know, even if he doesn't feel that way, I don't think that Remus would think less of you if you told him," she suggested.

"I'm scared like hell that he calls off our friendship. I've just lost James, I can't lose Remus, too," Sirius said in a tight voice.

"Yes, I can see your point. Would you like me to visit Remus and carefully bring the topic up? He might tell me how he feels."

"That's kind, but I think, I should do this by myself, Poppy."

"Very good. Set up a dinner for only the two of you tonight, after you've taken Harry and Hannah to bed. Make it very romantic and tell him. The two of you, like all parents, still need a life for yourselves, in spite of the children. It's Christmas in a week. Get him a very romantic present. And then talk. I do think, he won't turn you down, you know… even if it should not be in a romantic way, he loves you very much."

"Thanks, Poppy. Yes, I know he does. I love him beyond anything and I'm so glad he's there. For the children he didn't even have a problem giving up his job and putting himself at 'my mercy'. You know how much he hates being dependant. He's practically handed himself over to me."

"I know. But if he says he loves you back, then it won't be because you support him, Sirius, if you're afraid of that."

Sirius beamed.

"And, Sirius – there is a very helpful spell that you might need soon. I use it when I need to give someone a massage. It's 'lubricus'. You can personalise it with a flavour of your choice. Remus always loved eucalyptus."

Now Sirius broke out laughing. He hugged Poppy tightly. No one apart from himself knew Remus the way Poppy did. She had become a bit of a surrogate mother for Remus since his parents had been killed a year ago. All registered werewolves were under a kind of guardianship and once no living relatives were around, a person was chosen either by the Ministry or by the werewolf. Remus had plucked up all of his courage and had asked Poppy to become his guardian. Poppy had agreed right away and the Ministry had approved of his choice. Sirius liked her a lot and would get her counsel almost as often as Remus got it. When he left her on this day, Poppy was quite hopeful that Remus would find a safe haven for a long, long time. She hadn't told Sirius that he would run in open doors. When he had turned down her offer to talk to his friend and do it on his own she had been happy. She suspected that Remus felt the same, but would never speak up, because he was too shy in these things.

"They will be perfect for each other," she thought.

* * *

Sirius returned home and reached it just in time for lunch. Perry ate with them still and left as soon as the children were down for their afternoon naps. Remus went back to his room for another nap as well, which gave Sirius time to plan the dinner. He asked Kisty to make something regular for Harry and prepare the dinner for himself and Remus for an hour later.

"I want a table with the Sèvres china, Kisty, decorated with fitting flowers. It's roses on the plates, isn't it?"

"I is thinking so, master. I is checking quickly…"

Kisty vanished and returned with one of the lovely hand-painted plates. There were whole bunches of purple roses on them.

"Okay. So – purple rose petals on the table with lots of greenery. We'll serve a nice lamb roast, okay? That's what he likes most. With fried potatoes and green beans. I'll pick one of uncle Alphard's best wines. The lead-crystal wine and water glasses will do fine."

"What kind of entrée?" Kisty wanted to know.

"Salmon?"

"Okay. Salmon and toast for entrée, then a first course with a mixed salad, with some fried bacon cubes and croutons, then the lamb roast and chocolate cake for dessert, you is saying that he likes chocolate, isn't you?" she asked.

Sirius looked at her, pleased to bits. The little creature seemed to have cottoned on already. Sirius nodded.

"Yes, that would be perfect. Then a nice mocha to finish off."

Sirius went to his room for a little nap on his own. His heart pumped hard and he was excited. Poppy didn't need to tell him straight out, Sirius had felt that she knew something already. Maybe the glances he had felt and seen from Remus really meant the same as he meant when he looked at Remus?

"I shall see tonight…" Sirius muttered.

Kisty went to pick up the children from their afternoon nap. She set up Harry to play in the kitchen and supervised him, played with him a little when she got around next to her cooking. She left him for only short moments to set the table. She would feed Harry in the kitchen tonight, to leave her masters time for themselves.

When the time came, Remus helped her feeding Harry.

"In the kitchen? Aren't we eating in the dining room today?" he asked, astonished.

"Master Sirius says that today only little master Harry eats in the kitchen, you is eating in the dining room later…" Kisty explained.

"Oh. Wonder what he's up to…"

Sirius fed Hannah her bottle and just smiled. The little one was quite content and would only ask for more food once more in the evening. Harry, who was on his legs most of the day, would sink into his bed no later than something after seven. He usually slept easily after that. Some time in the past three weeks Harry had stopped asking for his mum and dad. For the time being he seemed to forget that he had a mum and a dad and just accepted Pafoo and Moo'ey.

Sirius took him to bed. Once the baby was sleeping, he went to his room to quickly brush his hair and dab a bit of cologne on his face. He went back down and looked at the clock, which showed half past seven. 'That gives us half an hour for the aperitif,' Sirius thought and went into the living room. Remus sat on his usual space on the sofa and read.

"Little one asleep?" he asked, looking up.

"And fast. He's so sweet when he's sleeping, Remus."

"That he is," Remus confirmed smiling.

"Can I tempt you with a drink, Remus?"

"What are you up to tonight, Sirius? Dinner just for us two only at eight, now you offer me a drink?" Remus asked, just a bit suspicious, but amused at the same time.

"Can I? Vodka sour…"

"Good choice, mate…"

"Well, I do know your tastes by now."

Sirius mixed the drinks and handed one glass to Remus. They clinked the glasses.

"Cheers!" Remus said.

"Cheers, Remus."

For a moment they sipped quietly. Sirius sat down next to Remus and asked:

"What are you reading?"

"'A Treatise of Elven Magic'. I'm not sure what to think of it, seeing as this is all more a myth."

Sirius nodded. Leave it to Remus to read this kind of stuff. And the book was rather thick, too.

"Filius recommended it, said if it wasn't true it was quite well invented. I tend to think it's mostly not so well invented. But I'm almost done with it anyway," Remus said cheerfully.

For now he was ready to mark his place and put the book down on the coffee table. Sirius, quietly sipping his drink, followed Remus' every move with his eyes. He looked tired still, but that was mostly because the transformations were so painful and hard and because Moony would not be still for most of the night.

"Remus, were you ever in love?" he asked out of the blue.

"Strange question, coming from you, Padfoot. Why?"

"Were you? Or are you?"

"I know love, Sirius. Are you?"

Sirius looked into Remus' eyes. They widened a bit and the candle light reflected in the amber Sirius loved so much. He nodded. Remus' eyes dulled. He lowered them and looked down into his glass. All spark seemed to have gone out of him. Sirius noticed it well and waited for a moment.

"Who is she? Do I know her?" Remus asked in a very low voice.

He didn't see Sirius' big smile.

"Remus, you know them very, very well. I say them, because it's not a she, Remus. I'm in love, deeply in love, with the most wonderful person I've ever had the luck in my life to meet – that would be you…"

A slight blush rose on his cheeks and Remus felt himself heat up at the same time. Did he just hear Sirius say he was in love with him, Remus? His eyes shot open again and he looked up.

"M.. me?" he croaked.

"Yes. You. Is that so hard to believe? You are beautiful, you have the biggest heart anyone can have, you practically spell love and you are the air that I breathe. Without you I'm nothing, Remus. You're my conscious, my knowledge, my love."

Remus beamed and said:

"Will you shut up with your sweet talking and kiss me already, Padfoot?"

Sirius looked at Remus again and barked a laugh.

"Should have known that this brings the imp out of you, love," he said, leaned in and met Remus' very ready lips. Their arms went around each others' shoulders and suddenly they couldn't be close enough.

When they parted, Remus looked into Sirius' eyes and noticed how the grey in them swirled and how they shone. He sighed and took possession of these soft lips again immediately. Sirius pulled him close and over to himself. Remus shifted and landed on Sirius' lap, straddling him and pressing himself as close as he possibly could. They let go again and Remus leaned his head on Sirius' broad shoulder. He sighed again, very happily and caressed Sirius' neck and throat. Sirius held him close and rocked him tenderly.

"I love you, Remus. I have for quite a while. I could hardly sleep lately, because I wanted you so much."

"I know the feeling. I've loved you for so long, Sirius. And I tried so hard not to let you know, because I thought you would never feel the same way, never! I was so scared of losing you. Even more these past few weeks since James and Lily died. You're the only one I have left who's close, besides Poppy."

"You'll never lose me now, Moony."

"I'm happy now, Padfoot. – Do we go over and eat? I'm bloody hungry."

"That was my line, Moony. I suggest we go, if we don't want to let a good dinner go to waste."

"It smelt wonderful when I fed Harry in the kitchen before. How typical of you to set this up with a dinner…"

"Dear old Alphard loved his food, believe me. That's why he chose a house-elf with exceptional cooking skills. And I actually thought to speak up only afterwards…"

Remus got up from his lover's lap with a tiny bit of regret. They crossed through the swinging doors to the dining room, where Kisty really had set up a wonderful table for two. The white damask shone brilliantly and the decoration of dark pink rose petals and candles looked very nice. Sirius had decanted a bottle of finest Bordeaux wine for the main course and cooled a perfect Chardonnay for the entrée. He poured a glass of the white wine for each of them, just as Kisty served the salmon.

They found their easy companionship again over the food and talked about everyday things, but more than once either of them put his hand on the hand of the other. Kisty had changed the large table into a smaller round table and seated them next to each other.

"I so look forward to the days when we can see the sun rise in this dining room and enjoy breakfast to it," Remus said dreamily.

"Yeah, me too. It was lovely last summer."

They took their good time for this dinner. In the past week they had shared the meal with Harry and had Hannah around as well. They would share their meals with the children again from on the next day, so they cherished this chance to be alone together. Remus thought that his life couldn't have taken a turn for the better than that. He had already been very happy when they set up household on the island, but now… he threw a sideways glance to Sirius. Sirius noticed, looked back and both leaned in for another kiss.

"I love you, Sirius," Remus said quietly.

"You don't even begin to know what that means to me, Remus. I love you, too."

"Are we becoming as sappy and romantic as James and Lily now?" Remus tried to make a joke.

"I hope so. Always envied them for what they had, to be quite honest."

"Yes, it was special. Who would have thought it would only last so short?"

They both sighed.

Kisty brought the main course. The roast was perfectly crisp and they both sniffed the wonderful scent of rosemary and garlic.

"Mmm, that smells nice, Kisty! I'm sure it's perfect!" Remus said, beaming.

He started to serve Sirius and himself a nice big plate full of the roast, the potatoes and the vegetables. There were steamed green beans, carrots, some fennel and leaf spinach, the latter nicely mixed with fried bacon cubes and onions.

And Remus was certainly completely taken with the dessert when Sirius served him with a thick slice of a wonderfully rich chocolate cake. Remus was all smiles and when they finished their meal with the coffee he sighed, leaned back in his chair and patted his belly.

"That was the Christmas feast taken ahead, love… I'm sure it made Kisty happy to cook this," he said.

Sirius looked thoroughly content that he was able to see his new lover so happy. He kissed him. Remus looked up at him.

"And what now?"

"Want to dance some of this away?" Sirius asked.

"Jolly good idea…"

Sirius pulled Remus from his chair and over to the living room. He started some music and pulled Remus into his arms. They started to dance in slow motions through the spacious living room. Remus stumbled over one of Harry's toys that was strewn across the room, but Sirius caught him deftly. They grinned. And then laughed.

"That kills a bit of the romance if you step on the toys of our children," Sirius said.

"On the contrary, love, it makes it precious! As you just said, they're our children now…"

Sirius had done it unconsciously, and it gave him a pang of guilt when Remus pointed it out. But he knew, that they would have to live with this guilt. He buried his face in the crook of Remus' neck while they moved. He breathed in his scent and snaked his tongue out to lightly lick away the salt on the skin of his lover. Remus let out a small whimper. Sirius felt himself grow very, very hard, but he could also feel the reaction from Remus, which reminded him that there was still a lot they had to discover together. They found together for another long and deep kiss.

Just as they thought about going to bed they heard Hannah cry for her bottle. Remus smiled and said:

"I'll take her."

He summoned a bottle from the kitchen, warmed it up and went upstairs to pick up the baby. He sat down on a rocking chair with Hannah, offered her the bottle and watched as she began to suckle eagerly. He still felt sorry for her.

"Not the same nice way of consuming your food as with your mummy, isn't it, love?" he said softly.

But Hannah had adjusted and accepted the food. When she let go of the nipple of the bottle Remus put it away and lifted her up. He held the baby very close and made slow circling movements on her back until she burped. Then he kept rocking slowly until the baby fell asleep again.

"There's my little girl," he cooed and gently put her back into her crib.

Remus got up and almost bumped into Sirius leaning on the doorjamb. Sirius caught him again and smirked.

"Are you going to make that a habit?"

"What?"

"Forcing me to catch your fall, love…"

Remus scowled.

"It's not as if I did that deliberately, Sirius. Honestly."

Sirius just grinned, put his arm around Remus and steered him right into his bedroom. Remus went without hesitation. He wasn't so sure what to expect, but he was ready to explore the uncharted territory.

All of a sudden Sirius realised that this would be the very first time he was going to make love to someone. At school he had experimented some, but never really went far. And once they had left Hogwarts behind it had been work and the war. It was still work and the war, but he now realised that there were more important things and they were best kept right here in the home, in his heart and with this man in his arms. Everything seemed to fall together now, all the pieces seemed to fit all of a sudden and with the filling of the picture came peace. Outside the remainder of the war could storm, but in this haven they were making for themselves they would be protected by the magic of the island and their love. Sirius closed the door most of the way. They didn't have to fear any of the children walking in on them, they were both still too small and too nicely asleep. Sirius and Remus kissed and started to undress each other, again without any hesitation at all. It all seemed so natural, seemed to be what they had both waited for.

Remus kept his eyes open. He couldn't get enough of the sight of his new lover. Slowly piece for piece of their clothing landed on a pile on the floor, mixed up, but neither cared very much as they continued to peel everything they wore off. As skin became visible their caresses caused them to shiver. Sirius pressed himself to Remus and undulated lightly with his hip. Remus moaned.

"Oh, that feels good," he said, whimpering for more.

Sirius breathed deeply and audibly. He continued to caress Remus and felt Remus' hands on his own skin.

"Yeah… feels definitely perfect, just don't stop," he replied.

It was Remus' turn to press against Sirius' body. They felt each other completely naked now. They continued to kiss, again and again, more and more hungry for each other. Breaths became shorter, they could hardly concentrate on coordinating their motions as they tried to do too much at the same time. In they end they collapsed on the bed and crawled on properly before falling over each other again.

They had to catch their breaths. Remus looked at Sirius. He gently caressed over his side, then followed the curve of his hipbone inward. He felt the skin underneath his fingers twitch and Sirius' moans grew more and more frequent. There was a prominent bush of curly black pubic hair that formed a small pelt and ended in a long line of fine black hair up to the navel. Sirius had very little body hair besides that. But Remus immediately liked to bury his hand in that black bush just above the cock, which was now bent upwards, heavy and hard. It emitted a lot of heat, too. Remus was delighted, when he found that the size of Sirius' cock seemed to fit perfectly into his hand. He closed his fingers around the shaft and slowly started to move up and down.

"Nnnnggg!" Sirius made loudly.

"Like that?"

"Yeah," Sirius was able to press out.

Remus was curious and continued to do to Sirius what he liked to do to his own cock occasionally.

"Oh Merlin, this feels so much better than it ever felt when I did it…" Sirius screamed.

'Wow! And it's just because I'm doing this?' Remus wondered.

He concentrated more on the head now and felt Sirius buck against his hand. There was enormous heat now and all of a sudden there was a lot of moisture. Sirius let go with a scream and his head dropped on Remus' arm, that still rested under his neck. He moaned softly as long as the ejaculation lasted. Sirius caught his breath.

"Gods, Remus, that was… I've never felt anything like that before!"

"Never? All I did was masturbate you, love…"

"Yeah, but it being you is making all the difference."

"I love you," Remus whispered.

"I love you, Moony. Let me give this back to you…"

Sirius started to explore Remus' body now. There was a bit more body hair. First of all there was an even thicker pelt of pubic hair than Sirius' own. It was now mostly covered by a thick organ, not particularly long, and a bit crooked, but with a nice, big head crowning it. Sirius carefully pulled back the foreskin and bent forward to give it a little lick. He had always been curious about his own cock, now he could find out just how Remus' organ tasted. And he loved it. Remus leaned back on the bed. He nearly jumped into the air when he felt Sirius' lips nibbling along the shaft of his cock and then holding it, so he could wrap his mouth around the head.

"Mmm," Sirius purred and the vibration nearly brought Remus over the edge already.

But Sirius didn't let him come all that fast. He wouldn't let Remus go inside of his mouth deeper than the head, because he already felt like he had to gag, but he could suck on the tip of the cock. And did that with abandon. Remus yelped a couple of times, when Sirius' teeth accidentally scraped his sensitive skin, but over all Remus loved the experience and vowed to give that to Sirius as soon as he could. But for now he drowned in the feelings that Sirius' ministrations elicited in him. Remus moaned again. And felt himself come.

"I'm coming, Siri…" he warned his lover.

"M-mpf…" Sirius just made and gave the cock another lick.

He sucked again and this time the suction actually brought Remus to his orgasm. He cried and shot his seed into Sirius' mouth. Sirius didn't think, he just swallowed what came out. And found that he didn't mind the taste at all.

Remus caught his breath again. He agreed with Sirius that a loving partner made all the difference and that this was way better than any kind of masturbation.

Sirius crawled up and kissed him again. Remus turned back to Sirius and returned the kiss, then he said:

"Could we sleep? I'm still quite tired…"

"Yes, of course, my love. Let me just pull up the covers."

The morning came and met the two lovers entangled in each other and thoroughly happy.

"+"+"

Sirius was woken by the alarm clock. He turned it off and looked around. Remus slept next to him, pressed tightly to his side. Sirius smiled and kissed him awake. Or fully awake.

"Good morning, love!" he said.

Remus stretched and beamed at him. Then he slung his arms around Sirius and kissed him back.

"Good morning, Siri. Have you slept as well as I have?"

"I suppose. Never slept so well in the last few years. I was out like a light."

"Me too."

But they started to get up to go about their daily tasks. Sirius went to the shower, got dressed and was found in the dining room a while later where Kisty had their breakfast ready. Remus, still in his dressing gown, brought down Harry and Hannah. Harry already crawled down the stairs on his own. He ran into the living room and waited for Remus to push open the door to the dining room. Sirius lifted Harry into his high chair and they started to eat their breakfast.

Once Sirius had left after breakfast Remus started to rummage through the house for Christmas decorations, but didn't find anything. He asked Kisty to mind the children for two hours. Then he flooed to the Diagon Alley and went to Gringotts. With the money he got he went to do some of his Christmas shopping. He got the decorations and a clock for the wall, which would become their family clock. And he bought his gift for Sirius with money he had fetched from his own vault. There wasn't time for a very elaborate gift as Christmas was in four days already, but Remus found a lovely necklace with a small heart in gold. He bought it. Then he returned home to find Harry running all around the living room playing broom ride. Remus put his things on the floor and caught the little one in his arms. He lifted Harry up and kissed him.

"Hello, my little Marauder. You look quite busy, don't you?"

"'Lo Moo'ey," Harry chirped.

"It's very nice to hear you talking, Harry. What say you, will you help me with the Christmas decorations?"

"'Mas?" Harry asked.

"Christmas, Harry. You don't remember last year's Christmas, it was your first and you were just a little older than Hannah is now."

"Wha' do?" Harry asked, when Remus put him back on the floor and turned to his load of bags.

"First we set up the Christmas tree I bought, Harry. I need to change some of the furniture around…"

Remus pushed some of the furniture out of the way and minimised it, put it on some other piece of furniture and had a nice, clear space for the Christmas tree. He brought the little tree out of his bag and fished for the stand to put it in. He pointed his wand at the stand first and said:

"Engorgio!"

He placed the stand and enlarged the Christmas tree again, then he set the tree up. Harry watched every move he made and clapped his hands when he saw the big tree.

"T'ee!" he called.

"Yes, Harry, it's a tree. A fir tree to be precise. Now let's give it some lovely decorations."

Once the tree stood where Remus was happy with it he banished all the decorations he had bought for the tree onto it and in the end added the candles. Finally he lifted Harry on his arms again and said:

"Now we're going to add the top, Harry, will you help me?"

Harry nodded eagerly. Remus took the top from the box and held Harry's hand. Together they pushed it on the tip of the tree and then Remus stood back.

"What say you? Nice?"

Again Harry clapped and nodded. Remus grinned. He cleared the boxes away and started on the decoration of the rest of the ground floor. Harry followed him around and Remus had to take great care not to tread on the little boy.

"Tomorrow is Saturday and we'll go shopping for your Christmas presents, little one. I'm sure this year you'll already know better how to open yours. That'll be fun, you'll see."

All day Remus was dancing around the house, decorating and looking forward to Sirius' return from work. Sirius got home quite late, but Remus wasn't worried anymore, he knew that there was lots to do to prepare those trials. He knew it would loosen up a bit in a year or two. Sirius flooed in at dinner time. He looked worn out. Remus embraced him.

"You look terribly worn, love. Hard day?"

"That's the first name. Malfoy's lawyer is trying to bring up witnesses you wouldn't believe. I have yet to meet one that wasn't bribed or bullied. We keep rejecting them, but his tactics are mainly aiming at blocking our capacities, so we won't really get on with the preparations. But we've set up the trial for mid-January now. Once a trial is set it can only be postponed once."

"Sounds awful."

"I hope you had a better day – wow! That looks great!"

"Yes, I can safely say I've had a better day than you. Went shopping for that stuff in the morning, then had the fun of setting it up with a curious toddler in tow. It's been fun. Harry's vocabulary has increased by half a word."

Sirius laughed.

"Half a word?"

"'Mas. He can't say Christmas yet."

"Oh, I see."

"And now I've finally had a little time to care more for the little Miss Marauder. She's been a bit neglected while I was decorating, but she protests so little for attention that I have to remind myself she's there at all. She's getting lovelier every day, don't you think?"

"James all over again. She's even got his eyes."

"But she'll get her mother's hair, I think. It's not as black as Harry's."

Sirius finally kissed Remus. They held onto each other for a while. Remus lost himself in the kiss and his tongue duelled with Sirius' for a few minutes. Both felt their bodies react at once. When they let go, Sirius said:

"It's amazing what you're doing to me, Remus! Let me go and get out of these robes and wash off the day's trouble."

"Fine. Dinner will be ready when you come down."

"Thanks, love."

Remus had to give Hannah her bottle and then take her to bed. He waited until the baby was fast asleep, before he went back down. Harry was already quite tired. Remus lifted him up and said:

"As soon as Siri joins us we'll have dinner, Harry, then you can go and sleep. You've had a very busy day today!"

Sirius returned to them just a few minutes later. They sat down at the dining table and Kisty brought the food over. Sirius filled Harry's plate and helped him eat. He got a few bites of his own food between Harry's spoonfuls. Harry only started to learn to eat properly and his way of using cutlery wasn't quite up to speed yet, but Sirius tried to be patient. Remus helped from the other side. Once Harry stopped eating, Remus cleaned him up with a quick spell. Harry stayed in his high chair for another while and watched his guardians. Sirius could now concentrate on his own plate. He didn't talk much while he ate.

"I thought we could go shopping for the children's Christmas gifts tomorrow, Sirius," Remus said.

"Yeah. We'll do that. We can talk about what to get them tonight…"

"Yes."

After dinner they both brought Harry up to his bed and when he slept they checked on Hannah quickly before heading back down to the living room. Remus snuggled up to Sirius who pulled him closer. They kissed for a while.

"We idiots missed out on all of that and could have had it for so long…" Sirius moaned.

Remus laughed.

"Better late than never."

"Right you are. So what do you think we could give to Harry?"

"No broom yet," Remus said.

Now it was Sirius' turn to laugh. He admitted:

"Even I know that, love. But what about a Quidditch mobile for Hannah?"

"Mhm, I'm sure she'd enjoy that. And some books for both of them. I think, Harry would be ready for some building blocks…"

"Sounds like a good idea."

"For the rest we can just let ourselves be inspired at the shops. Should we take them along? Or take them to Poppy for the morning? She wouldn't mind watching them for a bit, I'm sure."

"If she is up to it, we could give them to Poppy, else we take them along. While one of us goes to the toyshops the other can go to Florean Fortescue's with them…"

"Bit difficult to order for them when no one can see them…" Remus said.

"Shucks. Well then, we can always decide that only one of us goes. And gets some ice cream from Fortescue's to take home."

"Might be better. I'll stay home this time if you want. Or, if we go while they're napping, we can leave them to Kisty."

"Yes, I think, she could watch them for an hour or so. No one can floo in without the password."

"And one can't apparate. We'll still have to do something about these wards so we two can actually apparate."

"There you have a job, Remus. That's your forte."

Remus smiled and kissed Sirius again. Sirius looked down on him and said:

"We'll have to reorganise my room since it's becoming our room now…"

"You don't have to redecorate, love, I like it as it is."

"Just set up a larger wardrobe and bring over your dresser…"

"Speaking of your room, err… our room… how about going there now?" Remus asked.

"Do you have something in mind?" Sirius asked back.

"I think, our cocks do…"

Remus ground a bit against Sirius' crotch to let him feel his erection. Sirius didn't protest at all. After all they were normal, healthy twenty-two year old males and their hunger for each other had only just been wakened.

"Yeah, let's go upstairs."

They found the room again, threw off their clothes, found the bed again and found the pleasure from the night before again. More uncharted territory was discovered and explored. Sated and tired they fell asleep and only had to get up once to give little Hannah another bottle to sustain her for the rest of the night.

The next day Sirius went to the Diagon Alley to do the Christmas shopping for the children. And he went to get a nice gift for Remus. He found some interesting books and finished his shopping trip at a jeweller's where he bought a ring for his lover. Sirius took his time in choosing and finally his eyes fell on a golden band with a row of tiny rubies embedded into the metal all around the ring. He liked it most and bought it.

Sirius returned home and went to show Remus all of his purchases apart from his gifts to his lover. He also dropped a wonderful silk scarf on the table and said:

"That's for Poppy."

"You're giving Poppy a Christmas gift? That's nice of you…" Remus said, smiling.

"Yep. A gift, which will also be a message for her. She'll love the message, I'm quite sure."

"That sounds rather intriguing. And you're teasing me with it!"

"She'll certainly tell you one day. As for now it's between Poppy and myself, I'm afraid," Sirius continued to tease Remus while he wrapped Poppy's gift and called for his owl to send it to Hogwarts. They also sent another few little gifts there, mainly for Albus and Minerva. Remus of course had a little gift for Poppy, too.

"Well, that done, let's wrap the stuff for the kids. Look at the mobile I found for Hannah! Isn't this great?"

On the mobile there were a couple of Quidditch players, all of them seemed to be Chasers, flying around and passing the Quaffle back and forth. Remus grinned and said:

"I'll keep watching it if they ever miss catching the Quaffle!"

Sirius grinned. Then he brought forth another gift for Hannah, a cuddly stuffed wolf that kept growling unless Sirius squeezed and hugged it. Remus grinned.

"Growling her into cuddling? Honestly, Padfoot…"

"It was the only wolf I found. I thought I might tamper with the charms a bit. I don't really like the growling either. Unless it's you that growls, of course…"

Then they turned to Harry's gifts. Sirius had bought some simple toys for one to two year olds. There was a bag full of the wooden building blocks Remus had wanted to give Harry. And there was a wooden model of the Hogwarts Express. And there were half a dozen books for both children.

"I can't wait for them to be old enough to read them stories," Remus said dreamily.

"They'll never leave your lap!" Sirius prophesised, grinning.

"Well, I don't think I'd mind that," Remus admitted.

"But I would. As your lover I have at least a part time right to your lap!" Sirius protested.

Remus laughed again.

The weekend was spent playing with the children and making love in Sirius' room. The early darkness made it easy to put the children to bed, they went to sleep and apart from the late night feeding for Hannah they slept through the night.

Monday Sirius had to work again, but he would be off on Tuesday as that was Christmas. On Monday night there were a couple of owls with gifts for the children from the people who knew where they really were. The media attention was starting to wind down a little as there were new events to talk about, mainly the many captures of Death Eaters and the many trials that were coming up.

Sirius sighed, when he put the paper down on Monday night. Remus was back to worrying about him, but mostly because he had so much to do.

"How many cases are you working at now, Sirius?" he asked.

"Don't ask, love. It just reminds me of the mountains of paperwork in my office. Fourteen! And I have to keep them all apart. They're almost all alike!"

"My poor baby…" Remus cooed and kissed Sirius.

"You wouldn't happen to know a remedy?" Sirius asked.

"I might. But you will have to come up to our room so I could apply it…" Remus promised.

"Really? Lead the way!"

Remus and Sirius went up to their room and undressed.

"Lie down on the bed on your belly, love…" Remus ordered.

Then he straddled Sirius and said: "Lubricus." His fingers were coated in a nice smelling oil, which he started to knead into Sirius' skin. He was not quite finished when they were both so hot for each other that Sirius said:

"I'd like you to use that charm for something else…"

"You mean…?" Remus pointed to his cock.

"Yes. Don't you want to complete our love-making?"

Remus smiled.

"Yes, of course I do… I was only waiting for you to say something."

"You don't always have to wait for me to say something, love…" Sirius said, getting more serious all of a sudden.

"I know. It's just… it's all so new still and I feel like I don't know how far I can go."

Sirius turned around and pulled Remus into a hug.

"Be more forward with me, love. I don't care how held back you are with others, but don't hold back when you deal with me, okay? I love you, Remus and I want to make love with you."

Remus almost cried of happiness. He kissed Sirius again and admitted:

"I'm so glad we're talking about it. And you're making me so happy, love."

"Take me, Remus, make me yours, claim me!"

"I will! What's the best way to go about it?"

"Do we need books, Moony?"

Remus grinned.

"Wouldn't mind them at all…"

"Poppy recommended that lubricus spell, to make penetration easier, I suppose."

"Okay. Since neither of us ever cared to check the details I'll just see what I can do…"

Remus lubricated his hand again and spread the oil, which was now faintly smelling of musk, on his cock. He also spread a liberal amount on Sirius' opening, just for good measure. Then he suggested:

"Either you turn to your side or on your belly, love, or I won't get there…"

"Side? Sounds okay. I think, I'd feel closer to you this way."

Remus waited for Sirius to turn around, then he crawled in behind Sirius, picked up his cock and pressed it against Sirius' opening. Everything was nicely oiled, but it took quite a shove to get Remus inside. And of course Sirius paid the price of their inexperience, because his muscles held tight and when Remus penetrated it hurt Sirius more than just a bit. He cried out. Remus winced.

"I hurt you, don't I?" he asked.

"Hold still, please – just for a while…" Sirius pleaded.

"I'm pulling back! I don't want to hurt you, love!"

Sirius gritted his teeth and replied:

"Just hold still for a while, I'm getting used to it…"

Remus followed the order, just stayed the way he was until he felt Sirius relax. Sirius breathed deeply, then he said:

"Okay, the pain's gone. I'm fine now, love. But I feel that there's something we're missing…"

"You mean we should check some books after all?" Remus teased.

"Might give us an idea," Sirius mumbled.

Remus caressed his belly and pulled Sirius close. He leaned over Sirius' face and kissed him. Sirius kissed him back and when Remus started to move inside of Sirius he moaned softly. Remus himself felt like he'd gone to heaven. He started to thrust, slowly at first, but with the growing lust his movements became faster, jerkier. He started to pump Sirius' cock while he thrust into his lover's arse.

"Oh, darn it, Sirius, this is so good! Oh Merlin, this is good! I'm going crazy here, it's so good…"

Remus kept muttering while he pushed. He felt Sirius getting closer to his orgasm and not long after that he felt the stream of semen leaking from Sirius' cock and that sent him over the edge, too. Sirius screamed.

"Remus! Remus, I'm coming, oh Merlin, I'm coming, oh my, oh my…"

Remus let go and tumbled into that delirious feeling that was his orgasm. In the past nights he had reacquainted himself with it and learned to know new dimensions of it by being gifted his orgasms by his lover. Remus collapsed behind Sirius and sobbed into his neck, he felt so good. Slowly he pulled back out of Sirius, but it still hurt Sirius a lot again. Sirius turned on his back, Remus fell onto him from his side. He buried his face in Sirius' shoulder.

"Damn, that was great. Could have done without the pain at the start, but the rest… fabulous, Remus!"

"I've hurt you…" Remus was still not over that.

"Just for a moment, love… maybe we're missing something, it's not supposed to hurt, now is it?"

"I don't think so… I'll find something to read it up…" he promised.

"I just didn't want to wait anymore, love, I wanted to feel you inside of me. And it was worth it…"

Remus smiled and kissed Sirius again. He was relieved that Sirius was okay and that the pain hadn't lasted.

"Don't you think we're educated enough to find out what we're doing wrong?" Sirius asked.

"Well, my 'educated' guess is that it has to do with the muscles. They tensed up when I tried to penetrate. Maybe they need to be relaxed somehow," Remus volunteered.

"Yeah, you might be on to something there…"

Sirius turned to face Remus and started to caress him again. He kissed Remus and let his hands wander all over his body. Remus relaxed and just felt. Sirius cast the Lubricus spell himself now and moved his hand between Remus' legs. Remus, now lying on his back, spread his legs almost instinctively. Sirius probed with his finger around Remus' opening now and spread more of the oil there. He pressed a little and his finger was inside.

"Yessss," hissed Remus.

"Good? Doesn't hurt?" Sirius asked.

"Good. Doesn't hurt," Remus confirmed.

Sirius continued. He pushed a little against the muscles until he felt them relax a bit. He was able to go in with a second finger. Now he started to push around a bit. Remus moaned in a low voice.

"That seems to be the trick, love," Sirius finally remarked.

Remus made it more easy for Sirius to reach him and pulled up his knees. All of this experimenting had given Sirius' cock the first impulse it needed, now Remus turned around, so he could give Sirius' cock the push to harden completely. He grabbed it and squeezed it lightly until Sirius started to thrust into his hand.

"Wait! You're supposed to do that somewhere else, Siri!" Remus chided.

Sirius stopped. He pressed Remus back on the bed and returned to what he was doing before, relaxing Remus' muscles and then he thought aloud:

"Can we do this like that? You on your back? What do you think? – If I lift your legs and your lovely little arse a bit…"

Sirius positioned himself on his knees and lifted Remus' legs over his hips, then he grabbed his cock and probed at the now well lubricated and well relaxed opening. He pushed slowly inside. Remus closed his eyes for a moment.

"Oooh, that is home," Sirius moaned.

"Come on inside, love, this feels great!" Remus replied.

Slowly, Sirius started to move and found no great resistance. He hit the rectal wall and now Remus screamed and shocked Sirius to the marrow of his bones. He wanted to draw back, but Remus just held on to him with his legs like clamps around his sides.

"Don't you dare retreating now, push, Sirius! Please!" Remus screamed.

"What's that?"

"There's something you're hitting and it's just simply unbelievable… it feels so good! Yes!"

Sirius continued as asked. He felt so good it almost made him come too early, but he was able to hold on just long enough for Remus to reach his climax before he came. Both were now pleasantly exhausted and collapsed in a heap on their bed.

"That felt so, so good, love," Remus whispered.

"I just hope that the silencing charms held and we haven't woken the children," Sirius worried.

"I'd have heard them crying if we did, Paddy."

"Yes, you're probably right about that. But I'm really tired now, how about some sleep?"

"Mhm, I'm tired, too. Thanks for that, Sirius."

"Any time, Moony…"

Remus lazily groped for his wand and pointed it at themselves and the bed and said:

"Scourgify!"

They were nicely clean again. Remus put out the lights, dropped his wand back on the nightstand and turned to Sirius, who was already half asleep. They kissed for a while, then they went to sleep.

In the morning Harry woke them when he called for them:

"Pafoo! Moo'ey! Pafoo! Moo'ey!"

Remus heard him and tried to disentangle himself from his lover's long limbs, but managed to almost fall out of bed. He pushed and shoved at the big body and cried out:

"Sirius! Move! I need to get up, Harry's calling!"

Sirius, only half awake, turned onto his back and Remus was free enough to get up. He just quickly went over to the nursery and greeted Harry:

"Good morning, Harry! It's a bit early, come cuddle with us in our bed…"

He picked the little boy up, changed his nappy and took Harry over to their bed. Harry was delighted and dove into the chaos of blankets and limbs to look for his godfather's head.

"Pafoo!" he cried.

"Yes, my little Marauder?" it sounded from somewhere under the blankets.

"Pafoo! 'Mas!"

Remus grinned. Clever little Harry.

"Yes, Harry, it's Christmas today. In a while we'll all go down and look at the presents under our tree. You'll find a lot of things there, Harry!"

An hour later they were all four in front of the big tree, sitting on the carpet and looking at the candles burning on the tree. Sirius and Remus sang Christmas carols. Hannah was on Sirius' arms and beamed up at him. Harry looked from Remus to Sirius, then back to Remus and clapped his hands, sometimes he threw in a squeal or two.

He crawled closer to the tree, but Remus caught him and said:

"No, Harry, there are candles burning, that's getting dangerous. Why don't I get one of your presents for you?"

Remus summoned a gift for Harry and one for Hannah. They started to open a lot of gifts from all of their friends. Looking at the mound Remus felt warm and happy, knowing that they had lost a good many friends in the war, but that there were still quite a lot of them around. They would have to invite some of them for dinner in the new year, he thought, we need to hold on to our friends.

It was an exhausting day, as there were a few calls through the fire and a lot of owls who brought greetings. Harry played himself tired twice over with all of his new toys and little Hannah enjoyed some cuddling time with her godfathers. Sirius fell asleep on the carpet with the little one in the crook of his arm. Remus rushed to the cupboard to get the camera out. He took a few pictures of the two sleeping peacefully on the carpet.

Sirius and Hannah were still sleeping on the carpet and Harry was taking his nap up in his bed when Albus Dumbledore came for a visit. Remus looked up from his position next to Sirius and got up when he saw Dumbledore coming through the fire.

"Hello, Albus! Merry Christmas!"

"And a merry Christmas to you, too, Remus. It seems like you're getting comfortable here…"

Remus looked lovingly down on his mate and confirmed:

"Yes, Albus, you could say that. We mourn a great loss, but we have found love and a family instead. It's been like Christmas coming early this year!"

Albus looked at Sirius and baby Hannah.

"We'd better let them sleep. I just wanted to see how you are all doing, but I think I already know. Please give my regards to Sirius when he wakes up."

"I will, Albus. And please extend our best wishes to Minerva and everyone at Hogwarts…"

"I will, Remus. Have a very pleasant evening."

And with that, Albus vanished back through the fire. Remus sat back down and looked at his lover again. He fingered his new ring and thought of its significance. It was a promise for a future together.

"My family," Remus sighed.


End file.
